New Delhi, India - The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, paid tribute Thursday to those killed in the Chinese government crackdown on pro-democracy protests 20 years ago in central Beijing and urged thegovernment to review the events that led to the violent suppression. "I respectfully honour those who died expressing the popular demand for the government to be more accountable to its people," the Dalai Lama said in a statement from the headquarters of his government-in-exile in India's northern hill town of Dharamsala.
The 73-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising there against Chinese rule, said the Chinese leaders had a "great opportunity" to review the events that led to the bloodshed on June 4, 1989.
The students who led the movement were neither anti-communist nor anti-socialist and their speaking out in defence of the Chinese people's constitutional rights and in favour of democracy as well as taking a stand against corruption truly conformed to the underlying beliefs of the Chinese communist government, he said.
"This was confidently stated by the then-party chief Zhao Ziyang; therefore, the forthcoming 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China presents a great opportunity to review the events of June 4, 1989," the Dalai Lama said of the October 1 anniversary.
"It is my hope that the Chinese leaders have the courage and far-sightedness to embrace more truly egalitarian principles and pursue a policy of greater accommodation and tolerance of diverse views," he added.
The 1989 protests, which centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, called for an end to official corruption and demanded political and social rights. They ended when troops with tanks and live ammunition moved through Beijing overnight on June 3-4, 1989, reportedly killing hundreds of unarmed civilians and wounding thousands who allegedly blocked their route.