MOSCOW, June 4 (RIA Novosti) - Hundreds of police have been deployed on Beijing's Tiananmen Square amid a range of security measures to prevent any commemoration of the lives lost in the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
Foreign reporters have been banned from the square, the focus of several weeks of student-led demonstrations 20 years ago that were brought to an end by the military in the early hours of June 4.
China continues to avoid public discussions on the killings, and the Communist Party has never released an official death toll. Estimates as to the number of protesters killed on and around the square vary from hundreds to thousands.
Chinese authorities have blocked all foreign media broadcasts mentioning the massacre, officially known as the June Fourth Incident, and have temporarily blocked social networking sites, as well the photo and video sharing sites Flickr and YouTube.
On the eve of the Thursday anniversary, the U.S. secretary of state urged China to release those still in prison for involvement in the protests, and to end harassment of other dissidents involved.
"A China that has made enormous progress economically and is emerging to take its rightful place in global leadership should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal," Hilary Clinton said in a statement.
Dissidents involved in the 1989 protests who are still living in Beijing told Western media they have been put under effective house arrest, and are being closely watched by police. Others have been forced to leave the city.
China's official news agency Xinhua put out a story on Wednesday reporting a ceremony to honor soldiers at the Tiananmen Rostrum, but avoided any mention of the anniversary.
The 1989 protests were triggered by the death of former leader Hu Yaobang, who had pushed for anti-corruption and pro-democracy reforms, but was dismissed two years before dying of a heart attack. The protests lasted seven weeks.
The violent crackdown, covered in detail by TV channels throughout the Western world, sparked international condemnation and dealt a huge blow to China's relations with many countries. While the Soviet Union, along with other communist countries, avoided direct condemnation of the Tiananmen massacre, the Kremlin expressed regret over the incident, and Mikhail Gorbachev called on China to carry out reforms.
