YESTERYEAR



The "Tiananmen Square massacre" is constantly referred to. Why have I never seen film or video footage of a single death? The cameras were there, were they not? ONE PHOTOGRAPH was published in Granta which clearly showed two mutilated bodies. They were, however, those of two Chinese soldiers, hanging from a burnt-out bus in Tiananmen Square. These images were never seen in the mainstream Western media, which also maintained a silence concerning the actions depicted in them. Peter McKenna, Liverpool (p.mckenna@liverpool.ac.uk) THE CAMERAS were indeed there, and showed a peaceful demonstration that went on for a couple of weeks. The government tried to disperse the crowd by the equally peaceful method of persuasion, then by sending in unarmed police. Finally, in exasperation, the army were called in, but the demonstrators chose to instigate violence. Video films clearly show a demonstrator throwing a Molotov cocktail at the first personnel carrier to enter the square. Hand-to-hand fighting broke out and spread to nearby streets, where many people were killed. The reporting of this tragic episode is yet another example of media manipulation of the news. No-one was killed in Tiananmen Square; the famous film of the man with the carrier-bag defying a column of tanks shows them stopping and turning aside to avoid crushing him; and the bullet holes that reporters said had riddled the statue in the centre of the square seemed to have suddenly disappeared when we saw workmen cleaning up the following day. The notion that unarmed students had assembled to demonstrate peacefully and were immediately shot down in their hundreds by the People's Liberation Army (as the British army did in Amritsar) is a lie. Michael Short, Hastings, East Sussex. MICHAEL SHORT'S answer is a whitewash of the Chinese government. It was not the demonstrators who "chose to instigate violence" in 1989 but the army who, from around 10pm the previous night, had been opening fire on anyone who got in their way. By the time the first armoured personnel carrier reached Tiananmen Square, the massacre had been going on for five or six hours - small wonder that someone threw a Molotov cocktail at it. At the time, CNN and the BBC carried graphic footage of the shootings, and of the indescribable scenes in Beijing's hospitals as the dead and wounded were brought in. There is no doubt that documentary evidence of the massacre exists - even the Chinese government had to produce some pictures of dead civilians in their justification of June 4. And I have seen pictures of the statue in the square riddled with bullet holes. What is true is that very few people (not none) were killed in the square itself. By the time the army entered the square the fighting was almost over, and the students negotiated a retreat - though some students who were in the square that night have insisted that the army opened fire as they left, and that a number of students were killed. The vast majority of the army's victims were killed as the army fought its way into central Beijing, particularly in the western suburbs of the city. On the morning of June 4th the Chinese Red Cross claimed that 2,600 people had been killed, based on a survey of the hospitals. The extensive literature that has since appeared on the massacre contains conflicting details of the events of the night, but there is general agreement that the casulaties ran well into four figures, and that the army came in prepared to kill as many people as necessary. Although there was heroic resistance, the truth is that unarmed people were shot down not in their hundreds, but in several thousands. Charlie Hore, London N4 (bookmarks_bookshop@compuserve.com) AMNESTY International have published many reports since June 1989, see:

http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/index.html.

They have carefully documented "hundreds of killings of unarmed civilians by the army in Beijing" during these events and thousands of arrests on political grounds since. As for the man with the carrier bags who stood in front of the tanks? He was summarily tried and executed days after making his peaceful protest. Perhaps the question of whether we have ever seen such pictures becomes irrelevant when we can rely on careful documentation by a non-political, international organisation which works relentlesly and impartially for the release of prisoners of conscience, fair trials for political prisoners and an end to torture, extra-judicial executions, disappearances and the death penalty. Alan Tucker, London, (a.tucker@chemistry.bbk.ac.uk) MICHAEL SHORT states that the reported killing of hundreds of unarmed students "is a lie". But there is a mass of photographic and video evidence of the use of firearms by armed forces during and after the night of June 4, 1989, and footage showing wounded people being rushed to hospitals on makeshift stretchers. Amnesty International also has many gruesome pictures of dead bodies lying on hospital floors. There is no doubt that hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed in central Beijing during the night of June 4 and that more were killed in subsequent days. The Chinese government itself said that 200 civilians, including 36 college students (and 16 soldiers) were killed in Beijing in early June. The mother of one of the students killed has gathered nearly 200 names of victims. Through its own research, which included numerous eye-witness testimonies, Amnesty International estimated that at least 1,000 civilians were killed in Beijing as a result of the crackdown. The Chinese government stated at the time that "no-one" was killed on Tiananmen Square during the student's evacuation of the square between 0430 hours and 0530 hours. This is the extent of the denial made by the authorities. This may be technically correct, to the extent that shooting took place in adjoining streets rather than on the square itself and that unarmed civilians were killed by armed forces in many other parts of Beijing. But there is no doubt that killings did take place as a direct result of the authorities' decision to use armed forces to clear the square. The pro-democracy movement was overwhelmingly peaceful until the armed forces fired on crowds. Mr Short refers to footage of a demonstrator throwing a Molotov cocktail at the "first" personnel carrier to enter the square. To our knowledge, that incident did not occur on Tiananmen Square, and did not concern the "first" personnel carrier. Pierre Robert, The China Team, Amnesty International, London WC1. PIERRE ROBERT uses the same wordplay tactics of which he accuses the Chinese government. China never said that "no one was killed in Tiananmen Square during the students' evacuation between 0430 and 0530." Mr Robert's implication is that the killings might have taken place other than between those hours. The pro-democracy movement was not "overwhelmingly peaceful until armed forces fired on crowds." I have masses of video evidence from TV (including some that was suppresed after a first showing), plus reports appearing in the Guardian at the time. And has the mother's list of 200 victims been proved authentic? Lawrence Sutton, Orpington, Kent. "LOOK AT IT this way," a British diplomat who was in Beijing at the time told me. "Those in the square were not peasants, factory or mine workers. They were, by and large, the offspring of those who would have ordered any firing. Draw all your own conclusions." D R Johnson, Andover, Hants. IF SUCH a recent event, with living witnesses, attended by the media, filmed by TV cameras, recorded by the worlds media, can be be subject of argument as to whether there was a massacre and who (if anyone) fired first, then how reliable is our understanding of past historic events? Peter May, St Albans, Herts (peter may p.may@ukonline.co.uk) The Chinese government, as far as I know, never admitted any death or injury. The Red Cross claims around 2,000 deaths, and so did the students. I believe that it is another goverment cover up. The entire square was under lockdown, and the whole place was under curfew. No reporter was allowed in, but some might have sneaked in. Ben Zheng, Shanghai, China Obviously, if you think that over 7000 students WERE NOT massacred at Tiananmen, you need to read up on history. Michael, I recommend the book "June Four", where the graphic images of countless mutilated students should provide sufficient evidence of the massacre. Daniel, Houston, USA I would like to suggest that Michael Short and Peter Mckenna are 2 Chinese using Western names in their posts on here. Only a communist Chinese would pose such a question. Look it up on Google video if you want any evidence. Mike White, Llanelli, Wales I can assure you the Tiananmen Square Massacre did, in fact, happen. I have friends and relatives there and they have told me the horror stories. One of the first hand witnesses was a friend that was walking toward the demonstration to see what was going on right before the shooting started. As they tried to escape, full auto machine-gun fire was continuously heard for hours as the students tried to run away. Many were captured and executed. Red Cross's 2000 death toll is low. It is at least double that. Mass graves were dug one day before the shooting started on the outskirts of the city. As for why no videos/pictures? All reporters were given orders to leave hours before the shooting and there was a complete media blackout. They jammed all radio freqs and no media go in or out. There were very limited video/photo documentation ... here is one ... not sure the authenticity of all the clips but the story is still accurate. BTW... Tiananmen square was shot up pretty bad... but repairs on the walls (used for executions) and other places started one day after the end of the massacre. It is a sad event... it is an event I hope the world will never forget. I'm happy I live in the USA with a constitution that protects my freedom. http://www.glumbert.com/media/tsquare KC, Torrance, CA USA Facts are irrelevant in the context of portraying a negative image of the Chinese government. People automatically choose to believe nothing that is close to the truth but anything that can exaggerate the death toll of the "crackdown". And people lose their sense of instinct while excitingly talking about the Tiananmen "massacre" as well as other incidents around the world, especially in those countries like Iran, Egypt, Syria, etc, while at home they dare not do anything like those protestors, such as throwing Molotov cocktails at the police. This is always the scenario when we talk about Tiananmen "massacre". Jim Zhou, San Jose, US The year was 1989, a big massacre happend and there was no video or photographic evidence? without proof how should we know if that actually happened or not? Turya basu, Kolkata India Here is a site that documents it. I remember seeing this picture of a protester on a bicycle run over by a tank as early as 1991. http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/RM1.TAN.TANK.CRUSHES.HTM Eli Blake, Joseph City, Arizona USA



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