DING ZILIN and her husband, Jiang Peikun, both retired professors, keep the ashes of their only son in an urn in their apartment at Beijing University.
As yesterday was Qing Ming, or "Tomb Sweeping Day", the lunar holiday when Chinese people honour their dead, they set out from the campus at the weekend to buy cake to place beside the metal container in his empty bedroom. But at the gates they were met by a dozen police, put into a car, accused of being "traitors" and driven back to their apartment.
The message was clear. No one in China will be allowed this year to commemorate the victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, even as a family matter.
The couple's son, Jiang Jielian, was a 17-year-old student when he was shot dead in Tiananmen Square by soldiers on June 4th, 1989. With the 10th anniversary only two months away, the authorities are taking no chances this year of any renewed unrest, and Tiananmen Square has been fenced off, ostensibly for renovations. The parents of Jiang Jielian disclosed that have been under virtual house arrest on the university campus.
Yesterday, Ms Ding told the story of her treatment to the Reuters news agency in Beijing. Weeping audibly, she appealed to the Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji to call off the police squad that she claimed has kept her at home for a month.
"These murderers, they're afraid of being found out so they send the plainclothes police to surround my house," Ms Ding said.
"But at least in years past I could go out and buy my son a birthday cake, or something he loves to eat. Why not this year? Aren't Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji grandfathers, with their own children and grandchildren? I hope they can show a little humanity. It's so hypocritical.
"They keep telling the world, `human rights are improving, human rights are improving'. Western governments say, `There's been a little bit of progress'. As a relative of one of those killed, why haven't I seen it?"
This is the first time the authorities have moved against Ms Ding, who has been a vocal critic of their determination to prevent any public discussion on the Tiananmen Square incident. As an associate professor of philosophy at the People's University in Beijing, she published a book containing with the names of 150 victims of the bloody military crackdown. Every June, together with 30 other bereaved parents, she sends a petition to the government asking for a full inquiry into the 1989 events. Jiang Jielian had just turned 17 when he was killed as the army fought its way into Tiananmen Square on the night of June 3rd-4th. And every June she receives no reply. The relatives of the victims have three demands: a new inquiry into the June 4th incident, so as to understand the real facts, permission to take legal proceedings against those responsible for the crackdown, and the rehabilitation of those who died and compensation.
Yesterday, a leading member of the banned China Democracy Party wrote an open letter asking the government to take responsibility for the Tiananmen incident and provide restitution for victims' families. Gao Hongming asked the government to "uphold justice in order to appease the souls of those killed and console the bleeding hearts of their relatives."
Meanwhile, a Hong Kong human rights group reported yesterday that a Beijing member of the party was taken away by police late on Sunday night.