Father of Tiananmen victim commits suicide after years of official obstruction

Official silence has been maintained about the incident ever since, with
nothing written in school textbooks and public discussion virtually taboo.

The Tiananmen Mothers routinely issue open letters urging the country’s
leaders to account for the deaths. They have for years called for a full
investigation, compensation to victims’ families and punishment of those
responsible for the military crackdown on student-led protesters. Members
say the government has never responded.

Ya’s son Ya Aiguo was shot in the head by martial-law troops in Beijing,
according to an obituary the support group posted on its website. A
testimony by Ya Aiguo’s mother on the same site says that at the time, the
22-year-old had been waiting to be assigned a job and had gone out shopping
with his girlfriend the evening he was killed.

His father killed himself out of despair and to protest the government’s
long-standing refusal to address the grievances of the victims’ relatives,
said Zhang Xianling, who knew Ya and his wife from the support group.

“The government’s cold-blooded behavior has caused this tragic ending,” said
Zhang, who lost a 19-year-old son in the crackdown.

“I hope this incident will make the government circumspect and that such a
thing will not happen again,” Zhang said. “In this, the government has a
responsibility. It owes a life now.”

The Chinese government has never fully disclosed what happened when the
military crushed the weekslong Tiananmen protests, which it branded a
“counterrevolutionary riot.” The government has never provided a credible
account nor allowed an independent investigation into the events and the
fatalities.

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