CHINA: The 16th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, like the preceding 15, will likely be uneventful as the government blocks efforts to mark the day, writes Clifford Coonan
It's 16 years since the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, killing hundreds, possibly thousands, of democracy demonstrators, but the mothers of those who died in the massacre are still looking for an explanation of what happened - and an apology.
Relatives of 125 people killed on June 4th, 1989, have written a letter to the Chinese government demanding some kind of atonement.
"They should compensate us and apologise," wrote Ding Zilin, who lost her 17-year-old son in the bloody crackdown in 1989 and is a member of a survivors' group called Tiananmen Mothers.
It's a plea that will almost certainly fall on deaf ears.
China defends its decision to send in troops in 1989, saying the military crackdown was necessary to ensure political and social stability, with "stability" a byword for Communist Party control. The 16th anniversary of the massacre - like the 15 preceding anniversaries - is likely to be uneventful as the government blocks any efforts to mark the day.
The recent jailing of two high-profile journalists working for foreign media outlets, as well as the detention of Chinese academics critical of the government, show the party is determined not to let that control slip and there is little chance of any fundamental change in the position on events in 1989.
Since 1989, the government has begun to implement some of the freedoms that the protesters on the square had sought, such as getting rid of rules dictating where Chinese could live or work and even whom they could marry.
Strong economic growth has given millions of Chinese a say in their destinies, and the government is engaged in a highly public campaign to crack down on the corruption which has blighted the country and which it once denied existed, though in the absence of a free media or speech, critics say the campaign is doomed to fail.
While President Hu Jintao has called for more "socialist democracy", power in China belongs exclusively to the Communist Party, and independent political activity is forbidden. Nearly all of China's active dissidents have been exiled or imprisoned.
The crackdown is no longer a topic of discussion these days and, increasingly, has become a historical problem. Students entering university this year were two years old when the massacre happened, and even this year's graduating class, poised to enter the workforce, were only six when it took place.
When questioned on the subject, many young Chinese shrug their shoulders or say that, while the events were terrible, they were a necessary price to pay for ensuring social stability and the foundations of growing wealth in China today.
But for the Tiananmen Mothers, missing their children, the horror of 1989 is still as fresh as it was 16 years ago, and they want the Beijing government to deal with the matter in the same way it regularly urges the Japanese government to atone for the Nanjing Massacre in 1937.
During the massacre in the southern Chinese city of Nanjing, colloquially known as the Rape of Nanking, the Japanese army killed hundreds of thousands of helpless civilians. Many were captive soldiers.
China regularly demands that Japan atone for the atrocity, and the Tiananmen families accuse the government of a double standard in repeatedly criticising the Japanese for not saying sorry while ignoring their own sins.
Ms Ding and 26 other victims' relatives have sent letters twice a year since 1995 to Chinese leaders. They want compensation, a full investigation and identification of the people responsible for the Tiananmen bloodshed.
Meanwhile, the government's annual crackdown on dissidents is taking place. Anyone suspected of planning anniversary events has been held under house arrest or forced out of town, activists say.
Amnesty International called for justice for those who lost their lives in the crackdown and also urged the release of those imprisoned in 1989, or jailed since, for seeking a reassessment of events on the vast square.
"Tiananmen has not been forgotten by the Chinese people and it should not be forgotten by the rest of the world," said Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen.
"Demands by Chinese citizens for justice continue. Yet not only are these demands ignored, the Chinese authorities continue to persecute journalists and activists and deny their right to free speech."