More than 3,000 of China's 1989 activists still in jail: group
BEIJING, May 30 (AFP) - More than 3,000 people are still in jail for their role in China's 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations, including a boy sentenced to 15 years for buying matches, a human rights group said Saturday, ahead of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.Veteran Chinese dissident Qin Yongmin also released a compilation of the 49 dissidents jailed, detained or questioned by police since the start of the year.
"There are still more than 3,000 people in jail for crimes connected with the 1989 demonstrations including 1,000 who have been convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes," the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.
"These people are not famous, and no one bothers with them and we call on the international community to pay some attention to their plight," it added in a fax received in Beijing.
Focusing on the small city of Shaoyang in central China's Hunan province, the group said nine people remained incarcerated for their role in the demonstrations, including Liu Xin, a boy sentenced to 15 years in jail when he was only 15 years old.
Liu's brother-in-law, Wu Hepeng, was given life imprisonment for setting fire to military vehicles in Shaoyang around June 4, 1989. Liu's own crime was giving him matches, the group said.
It also quoted the family of imprisoned worker Li Wangyang as appealing for assistance after he was returned to jail in Shaoyang during medical treatment.
Li, who was head of the autonomous federation of Shaoyang workers -- a group set up during the demonstrations -- received 13 years for counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement.
He was released on medical parole in July 1996 because he had heart problems and a goitre, but eight months later he was taken back to Yuanjiang prison in the middle of his treatment.
"Li Wangyang's health is still very bad and he needs to see a doctor, but the prison won't let him," the family was quoted as saying.
"We hope attention can be drawn to his case so he will be allowed to see a doctor," they added.
The main focus of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations was Tiananmen Square in the centre of Beijing. But there were other protests nationwide, where no foreign media were present and where the crackdown and ensuing punishments were far harsher.
Although two prominent jailed activists -- Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan -- have been released in recent months, control over dissidents has not lessened over the past nine years, observers say.
Veteran dissident Qin Yongmin compiled a list of 49 activists questioned, detained or imprisoned in the last five months, including 14 who remained in detention and some with prison terms of up to three years.
The latest detention was of veteran activist Wang Hongxue from the eastern province of Anhui. Police confiscated his identity card after they discovered he was planning to go to Beijing to mark the June 4 anniversay and then detained him on Friday, giving his family a warrant for him to be held for 15 days for questioning.
Qin said the main reasons for continued harassment were police concerns that dissidents might be forming networks across the country, especially since the expulsion of exiled dissident Wang Bingzhang who came back to the mainland in February to set up an opposition political party.