20 years on, exiles plan events to mark June 4 crackdown

Some of the exiled leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests are planning activities to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown next year. They have pledged to investigate and expose the 'truths' that the authorities covered up.

In a signed statement released yesterday on National Day, prominent dissidents including Wang Dan , Wang Juntao and Chen Yizi called on the public to join them in pushing for political reform and a free press and establishing a constitutional and democratic system - the goals they were pursuing in 1989.

'We hope to remind people not to lose their doubts on [the official version] of June 4 on its 20th anniversary because in recent years the Chinese government has kept distorting what happened then,' said Wang Dan from Los Angeles.

He said they planned to create a network of Tiananmen prisoners to trace the number of people who had been jailed. In this way, there could be a division of labour between them and members of the Tiananmen Mothers campaign, which focuses on tracing how many of the protesters died in the crackdown.

While the number of dissidents joining the campaign has not been determined, Mr Wang expressed confidence that most of them would take part in the events, which had attracted much attention from volunteers both on the mainland and overseas within a few hours of the statement's release.

A number of exiled leaders of the pro-democracy movement are still denied entry to the country. Many of those still on the mainland are subject to house arrest or surveillance.