10th Anniversary of Crackdown Ignored in Tiananmen Square

Soldiers marching with fixed bayonets greeted the dawn at Tiananmen Square in a daily flag-raising ritual today, the 10th anniversary of the army’s crushing of the pro-democracy movement.

A crowd of several hundred tourists watched as the soldiers entered the square through the Gate of Heavenly Peace, passing beneath the giant portrait of the late Chairman Mao Tse-tung. The square itself has been sealed off for renovations, but a section was temporarily removed at dawn to allow the honor guard to reach the flagpole.

There were no protesters or any signs of public mourning for the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people killed when troops and tanks shot their way into the square in 1989.

Police questioned and detained scores of dissidents ahead of the anniversary to head off trouble, according to a Hong Kong-based human rights group.

Ten people were detained today and Thursday, including three in a park in the eastern city of Hangzhou as they commemorated the dead. Some wore white flowers, a traditional symbol of mourning, the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.

Seven others were seized in Hangzhou on Wednesday and five were held in Beijing.