June 08, 1999	atimes.com

China Tiananmen kin eye UN court as last recourse By Antoaneta Bezlova BEIJING - They have spent years petitioning China's national parliament to mete out punishments for the killings on June 4, 1989, but to little avail. For relatives of the Tiananmen massacre victims, their calls for justice fell on deaf years. Shattered families were left with no more but their grief for the dead. Now, on the tenth anniversary of the bloody June 4 crackdown, those who lost their sons and brothers in student-led protests for political change are calling for an international legal forum to look into the killings. They also want former prime minister Li Peng, who had declared the martial rule that sent troops into Tiananmen Square, brought to justice. ''We believe that the actions of Li Peng and other people constituted a genuine crime and nothing less,'' said Ding Zilin, a retired teacher from People's University in Beijing who lost her 17-year-old son in the massacre 10 years ago. ''If the Chinese legal system can't handle our petition, we are going to seek justice with a United Nations court or tribunal,'' added Ding's husband Jiang Peikun, a retired professor from the same university. If and when it is filed, the case of the Tiananmen victims would be the first attempt by Chinese individuals to initiate a lawsuit against their government with an international legal institution. Indeed, the June 4th victims' network says that if the Chinese authorities do not take legal action, it intends to pursue the matter outside the country, with the ultimate aim of setting up an international tribunal of some kind. This could be in the form of an ad hoc criminal tribunal to try crimes against humanity, a suit brought in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, or a national court with universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity. What makes the petitioners confident the international community will act on their request are cases like that of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who was recently indicted for war crimes by The Hague tribunal. ''If they could indict Milosevic and his four associates, why couldn't they look into the case of Li Peng?'' asked Jiang. Other cases providing inspiration for the petitioners are those of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who might be facing trial for his alleged crimes years after his rule ended, and the international efforts to bring some of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge leaders to court. In China, the victims' families are accusing the Chinese leaders of murder, inhumane treatment and other ''intentional'' crimes during what their documents described as the ''bloody slaughter'' of June 1989. The petitioners hope to seek indictments against all officials responsible for the killing and wounding of unarmed people, including Li Peng. Li, who announced martial law in May of 1989, is today the second most powerful leader in the Communist party hierarchy and chief of the national parliament. The families are also seeking an investigation into the roles played by China's late leaders Deng Xiaoping and Yang Shangkun in the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations. Although Deng had retired from all significant posts by 1989, observers believe he was the one who approved the use of force against students. Yang Shangkun was president at the time of the demonstrations and is believed to have directed military operations to clear protesters from Tiananmen Square. The legal arguments of the case are supported by unprecedented detailed evidence of the crimes committed during the June 4th massacre. It includes 27 personal testimonies by relatives of Tiananmen victims, all compiled in the face of unrelenting official intimidation. ''The Chinese government must acknowledge that the 1989 massacre was a crime against the Chinese people as a first step toward justice, national reconciliation and true stability,'' said Xiao Qiang, the executive director of Human Rights in China, a dissident group in New York which is coordinating the legal campaign abroad. Two petitions, including the signed testimonies and an incomplete list of people who died, were handed to the office of China's Supreme Procuratorate in mid-May. ''There has not be a response yet,'' said Jiang Peikun. Legal challenges being considered by the relatives of Tiananmen victims will not be easy - and not only in China. If indeed brought to and accepted by a UN court, the case of the victims of the June 4 crackdown will be an unprecedented challenge to the Chinese communist government, which is always sensitive about questions of sovereignty or legitimacy. Deeply worried about potential international interference in what it regards as being within the scope of its ''internal affairs'', China was one of the countries which last year tried to block the creation of an International Crime Court (ICC) by treaty. The ICC, now awaiting enough support to take effect, was designed as an independent body, complete with judges and prosecutors, entrusted with the task of indicting individuals suspected of genocide, serious war crimes and crimes against humanity. Although the UN has been able to set up ad hoc tribunals for the worst human rights abuses of modern times, these panels lack the standing that could be imbued in a permanent court. China did not give its support for the body, citing many reservations on the future ICC statute. One such reservation, as formulated by assistant foreign minister Wang Guangya, was that ''the power of investigation will open the court to excessive allegations from both individuals and non-governmental organizations." ''The power not only grants individuals, NGOs and various units the right to prosecute civil servants and soldiers, but also creates the possibility that procuratorates and courts will use the power to interfere in the internal affairs of a country,'' Wang said. (Inter Press Service)

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