US urges China to free Tiananmen protesters

The United States on Sunday asked China to protect the human rights of its people and release all detained after the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations in the country.

"We encourage the Chinese government to release all those still serving sentences for their participation in the demonstrations; to provide a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing; and to end the continued harassment of demonstration participants and their families," the State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said.

On this 23rd anniversary of the "violent suppression" by Chinese authorities at Tiananmen Square in the 1989 spring demonstrations, US joins the international community in remembering the tragic loss of innocent lives, Toner said in a statement.

People's Liberation Army soldiers stormed into central Beijing on June 3-4, 1989, firing upon unarmed demonstrators and citizens, killing hundreds if not thousands, as they ended six weeks of democracy protests on Tiananmen Square.