June 4, 1999
Web posted at: 5:36 a.m. EDT (0936 GMT)

In this story: Detainees Patriotic display Hundreds believed to have died Baskets of flowers Statement issued RELATED STORIES, SITES

BEIJING (CNN) -- Police in China kept tight watch Friday to prevent public mourning on the 10th anniversary of the bloody end of the 1989 democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square.

Relatives of victims took flowers to their graves, and there was only a flicker of reported protest.

A young protester who flung a fistful of leaflets into the air on Tiananmen Square was apprehended by police, who chased him from the Gate of Heavenly Peace on the edge of the square, where a giant portrait of Mao Tse-tung gazes out. It was not clear what the leaflets said. Journalists who witnessed the event were also detained.

Also, police stopped a middle-aged man near Tiananmen Square who briefly raised a white umbrella marked with slogans.

"Remember the student movement" and other slogans were written on the umbrella. A uniformed officer took it away and put his arm firmly around the man's waist, and a plainclothes officer helped lead the man to a car. Within minutes, the protest was finished and the car gone.

Five journalists who saw the lone protester on Tiananmen Square were briefly detained by police, who seized film from photographers in the group.

Police in Beijing on Friday morning detained Liu Feng, who was going out to meet friends and pray at a church for those who died, the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China reported.

Police detained six activists on Thursday in Shanxi, Liaoning and Jilin provinces, bringing to 42 the number who have been detained and not yet released over the anniversary period, the Hong Kong-based center reported.

In all, about 130 people have been held for questioning and warned not to commemorate those killed in 1989.

Most people in the Chinese capital went about normal activities Friday.

At the square, a crowd of several hundred provincial tourists watched at dawn as soldiers marched four abreast into the vast plaza through the Gate of Heavenly Peace, passing beneath the giant portrait of Mao.

The square has been sealed off with a steel curtain for renovations, but a section was removed temporarily to allow the honor guard to reach the flagpole.

Who's who The government • Deng • Jiang • Zhu The Activists: Division in the ranks • Chai Ling, Li Lu, Wang Dan, Wuer Kaixi • Families still mourn Interactive Gallery: • A look back Modern China • Rural democracy • Military might Interview transcripts • a crackdown defender • a victim's mother • former Communist Party official • Premier Zhu Rongji From TIME Asia • We remember • Where are they now? • Memories that won't fade Message Board • Tiananmen Square anniversary

The national anthem blared out from loudspeakers across the square as China's five star flag was slowly hoisted, catching the first light.

The Chinese army began attacking crowds in central Beijing late on June 3, 1989. Troops and tanks reached the square before dawn on June 4, forcing the last demonstrators to leave. It was the end of seven weeks of protests that had drawn as many as 1 million people to Tiananmen Square and inspired demonstrations in other cities.

The number of people killed is unknown. The government has never given a credible account, but many hundreds are believed to have died.

Chinese leaders ordered extra vigilance this year to prevent anyone from using the anniversary to stir up anger over widespread unemployment and corruption. President Jiang Zemin has demanded "stability above all else."

Near the Fragrant Hills on the western outskirts of the capital, relatives of victims of the assault brought baskets of flowers to the Wan An Cemetery, the resting place of some of their remains. Police guarded the gate, and a sign in English and Chinese said, "No correspondents accepted."

In the first few years after the killings, uniformed and gun-toting People's Armed Police stood by as families of victims swept the graves of their loved ones.

Now, plainclothes men watch from a greater distance in a sign that the anniversary is provoking less tension.

Zhang Xianling, whose 19-year-old son was killed in the crackdown, said: "Ten years have passed, but I lost my child. I still feel deeply grieved."

"Even an animal feels pain when it loses its cub let alone a human being," Zhang told Reuters in a telephone interview before she and her husband set off for Wan An.

Zhang and her husband, music professor Wang Fandi, planned to light candles at their Beijing home in the evening to mourn the youngest of their three sons who was killed.

She was one of two relatives of victims who submitted evidence to Chinese courts in May demanding a criminal investigation of martial law troops involved in the crackdown.

The unprecedented legal action by a group of 105 victims' relatives and people wounded in the shooting also demanded prosecution of those they hold responsible, including former premier Li Peng.

Li, who barked out the declaration of martial law on television on May 20, 1989, is now chairman of parliament and number two in the Communist Party hierarchy.

Twenty-seven student leaders in the Tiananmen protests, including Wang Dan, Wu'er Kaixi and Shen Tong, issued a statement to condemn the atrocities committed by Beijing in the bloodbath, the Hong Kong-based center said.

They also demanded Chinese authorities to reverse its verdict on the movement and release those arrested.

Wang had collected 106,200 signatures from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States from people calling for a reassessment of the Tiananmen protests.

On Friday, dissident Cheng Fan handed in a petition to Chinese authorities to demand a reversal of the verdict and the release of dissidents. Other activists had started 24-hour hunger strikes in the central Chinese city of Xian and the southwestern province of Sichuan, the information center said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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