In China a bereaved mother has spoken out about the killing of her 17 year old son nearly two decades ago.

Jiang Jielian was one of hundreds if not thousands of pro-democracy supporters gunned down during the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Now with China about to host the Olympics his mother's appealing to the Chinese leadership to try to right past wrongs. China correspondent Charlotte Glennie speaks to Ding Zilin.

Charlotte Glennie, Reporter: He was a 17 year old boy who loved chocolate and his mother still puts it aside for him although he's been dead now for nearly two decades.

But Jiang Jielian was also a supporter of democracy and in the early hours of the fourth of June 1989, that cost him his life.

Ding Zilin, Tiananmen Mothers (translated): He was shot to death by the troops. He didn't have any weapon in his hand. He wasn't even holding a single brick.

Charlotte Glennie: Jiang Jielian was among the tens of thousands who had joined China's student protest movement. His mother said because he was a patriot who wanted the best for his country.

Ding Zilin knew it was dangerous but her son reassured her saying there was no way that any soldier would kill a student. Then on that fateful night, within 48 hours of his 17th birthday, he was proved wrong.

Ding Zilin (translated): His friends said that when Jiang Jielian was shot, he thought he'd been shot by a rubber bullet. They thought it couldn't be a real gunshot, only a rubber bullet. When he got shot, he even tried to back away with his classmate but he fell down straight away.

Charlotte Glennie: Jiang Jielian's ashes now rest in an alcove of his parent's small Beijing apartment. His mother's sought justice since the day another student came to her house bearing the terrible news.

"He told me that our son would never come back."

Ding Zilin (translated): He told me that our son would never come back. He'd given his life to the country and the nation. He would never come back.

Charlotte Glennie: It's never been revealed how many people died that night. Estimates range from several hundred to several thousand.

Dozens of bereaved parents like Ding Zilin want answers, calling themselves the Tiananmen Mothers they've petitioned China's Parliament for 11 years, demanding an open investigation into what happened, an apology to the families of the victims and punishment for those responsible.

Now with China about to host the Olympic Games this year they've added the request that the Government set a timetable for dialogue about the massacre.

Ding Zilin (translated): I don't like the fact China won the right to host the Olympics.

Think about it, as we said in a letter, in Beijing where those soldiers killed people, get all the world's Olympic athletes to compete here? Get all the top officials from all over the world to come and watch these games?

How do you think people like us, all the mothers, fathers and widows who haven't got justice will feel about this?

Charlotte Glennie: Discussion of the 1989 pro-democracy movement is taboo in China.

When Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympics the Government promised it would improve people's human rights. China claims it's doing that, but the Tiananmen Mothers insist that any changes are merely superficial.

They also ask what could be more fundamental a right than a person's right to life. Seventeen years ago Ding Zilin and her husband were sacked from their jobs as university professors after talking to the foreign media.

Ding Zilin was also expelled from the communist party. Over the years she's been detained, monitored and threatened.

But now she says with the Olympics looming, she's finally allowed the freedom to be interviewed by foreign media like us.

Author Jasper Becker says the Olympics haven't led to the break through in human rights in China that many people expected.

Jasper Becker, China writer: People compared it to the Seoul Olympics which led to direct elections in South Korea but nothing like that is on the books for China. And instead what you see is the Government sort of going through the motions to placate international opinion to give the impression that something is happening.

Charlotte Glennie: In fact he says the Chinese Government has ensured any discussion of sensitive issue like the Tiananmen crackdown remains strictly off limits.

"Most students there have never even heard of Tiananmen." Jasper Becker

Jasper Becker: If you go to the universities where the protests were organised from, were led from, I mean most students there have never even heard of Tiananmen. You show them pictures of the tanks in Tiananmen Square, they don't know what it is.

So they've completely erased this from people's memory to the best of their ability.

Charlotte Glennie: The Chinese Government's been silent about this latest petition but Mr Becker believes the Tiananmen Mothers will have to wait a long time for justice.

Ding Zilin still clings to the hope that while the eyes of the world are on China, the Olympics are her big chance to get answers.

Ding Zilin has often been called the bravest mother in China. She's lost her only child, her job and so much else and still she refuses to be intimidated.

When Jiang Jielian was alive, Ding Zilin said she wasn't interested in politics but now she's taken up his fight for democracy, living her life by his example.

Usually it's the other way around, she says, but in this case the parent has learnt from the son.