Dispute Stalls Funeral of China Leader

[Rose Siding]

BEIJING, Jan. 24 -- The family Zhao Ziyang, the former Communist Party chief who dissented from the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, is deadlocked in negotiations with party officials over control of funeral arrangements and their insistence on changes in an official obituary one week after Zhao's death, family friends said Monday.
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Police have been on high alert during the stalemate, with security tight around Zhao's home, Tiananmen Square, college campuses and various government buildings. Dozens of dissidents and others associated with the student-led movement in 1989, including at least one member of Beijing's city legislature, Xu Zhiyong, have been placed under surveillance or house arrest.

Police have also detained several people who submitted an application to stage protest march through Beijing by 5,000 people to mourn Zhao's death. Among those detained were Zhao Xin, a student leader in 1989 and now an executive at a Beijing real estate company, and Hu Jia, a prominent AIDS activist.

The family wants to open the funeral to the public, invite the hundreds who have visited Zhao's home over the past week to pay their respects and deliver a brief eulogy at the service, but the party has refused permission, Hu said. The party has also refused to delete the reference to Zhao's "serious mistake" from the obituary, he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32960-2005Jan24.html