The Tiananmen Mothers

Tiananmen Mothers icon
Tiananmen Bouquet

June 4 is around the corner.

June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre of 1989, the day when an untold numbers of dissenting students were killed by the army in Beijing. An army that used its machinery to put down the demonstrations by the unarmed students.

The Tiananmen Mothers, a group of courageous family members of victims of the Beijing massacre has banded together to challenge the official claims about what really happened. Those in this network provide support to each other and work together to gather information about what really happened in those tragic days at the beginning of June. In addition, they collect and distribute humanitarian funds donated to assist the injured and the families of the dead.

Over the last few days, when news agencies reported the following:
BEIJING — About 125 relatives of people killed by Chinese troops at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 1989 have sent the government a letter asking that it handle the incident the same way it wants Japan to atone for the Nanjing Massacre of 1937, a letter writer said Monday.
The letter, sent Saturday ahead of the 16th anniversary of the June 4 bloodshed, calls on President Hu Jintao to apologize and compensate for 1989 just as he asks Japan to do for its occupation of Chinese territory, including Nanjing, in the 1930s and 1940s, said letter writer Ding Zilin, who lost her 17-year-old son in 1989.

The Story of the June 4th Bouquet
"Years after the massacre, a student who participated in the 1989 demonstrations posted a message on the Internet explaining her ritual of gathering a June Fourth bouquet (six white roses and four red roses) to mark each anniversary. Her dream is to place such a bouquet in Tiananmen Square, publicly commemorating the massacre victims without danger of government reprisal. Until that time comes, supporters can only realize this dream in cyberspace."

Meanwhile, the Mothers continue mourning for their lost sons and daughters.