Beijing: Security forces kept a close watch on Beijing's Tiananmen Square during Wednesday's anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests, amid renewed calls for the release of political prisoners ahead of this year's Beijing Summer Olympics.
No public commemorations of the protests were known to be held and there were few reminders of the events of 19 years ago. Instead, the square, like the rest of the Chinese capital, was adorned with symbols of the upcoming Olympics.
Exiled dissidents and human rights groups have sought to link the two events, saying releasing political prisoners and allowing exiled student leaders to return would burnish the Communist government's image before the Olympic spotlight turns on Beijing.
''Then the Chinese people can work together to build a new China out of the ruins of national tragedy and to engage the world as a rights-respecting nation at home and abroad,'' Wang Dan, one of the 1989 movement's leading voices, wrote in an article in Wednesday's International Herald Tribune.
Discussion of the student movement and the June 3-4 military assault on the protesters in which hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed remains taboo within China. The Communist leadership labeled the protest an anti-government riot and has never offered a full accounting of the crackdown.
At access points to Tiananmen Square, police and other security officers searched bags for banners or leaflets containing dissident messages. Plainclothes officers used handheld video cameras to supplement the dozens of permanent mounted cameras trained on the square.
A security cordon around the hulking Monument to the People's Heroes was the only visual reminder of the protests. The obelisk and its surrounding terraces have been closed to the public ever since student leaders used it as their command center on the square in 1989.
Like much of Beijing, the square and its surroundings are getting a facelift ahead of the August Olympics. A countdown clock to the Aug. 8 start of the games dominates one side, while tunnels leading to the square are being refurbished. Construction work was curtained off with banners printed with the slogan ''Join hands with the Olympics, make a date with Beijing in 2008.''
Nearby, peddlers hawked trinkets bearing the Olympic logo as domestic tourists wore T-shirts reading ''I love China.''
In his article, the New York-based Wang bemoaned China's lack of political reform since 1989, despite rising prosperity and a growing global presence.
''The many dissidents still behind bars today represent a national tragedy as well as a political humiliation,'' Wang wrote.
Separately, Han Dongfang, formerly imprisoned for his efforts to organizers workers during the '89 protests, said freeing prisoners could cement the image of current Chinese leaders as less corrupt and more people-oriented.
Such a step would ''allow them to close the door on that era and inaugurate a new chapter in Chinese politics,'' Han, who now heads the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin, wrote on the group's Web site.
In an earlier appeal, Human Rights Watch also urged China to free Tiananmen prisoners to show ''the global Olympic audience it's serious about human rights.'' The group, based in New York, said about 130 prisoners are still being held for their role in the weekslong demonstrations, involving tens of thousands of students and others, that started in Tiananmen Square and spread to several major cities.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department urged China to make a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing in the crackdown. It called on the international community to urge China to release prisoners still serving sentences from the protests.
The U.S. said Chinese steps to protect freedoms of its citizens would help ''achieve its goal of projecting a positive image to the world.''
China pledged to improve its human rights situation when bidding to host the 2008 Olympics. But one Tiananmen activist, whose son was killed as he hid from soldiers enforcing martial law, scoffed when asked whether the August games had spurred the government to change its attitude.
''I don't have this kind of illusion,'' said Ding Zilin, co-founder of Tiananmen Mothers, a group representing families of those who died. She has campaigned to get the government to acknowledge those killed in the crackdown and compensate their families for the deaths.
China Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists and rights monitoring groups, released a list Tuesday of eight Beijing residents who remain imprisoned. A handful of activists were also placed under house arrest or monitored by police in the days leading up to the anniversary, the group said.
American John Kamm, who regularly campaigns for the release of Chinese political prisoners, said with the steady completion of their sentences, only about 60-100 people remained in prison on charges related to the '89 protests.
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