June 4,
1989 - Tiananmen Square Massacre? - What really did happen?
Email to JW from James Miles, BBC Beijing 1989 correspondent:
"….intellectuals
….who had been staging a hunger strike on the square with the students, negotiated with the ….troops on behalf of the students, after the troops
reached the square.
As a result, the students were allowed to leave without harm….
I believe it is possible that no-one was killed on the square …..
…it does now seem that some of the reports I and others filed at the time
implying there was a bloodbath on the square proper were misleading
I think “The Gate of Heavenly Peace” documentary is a good reflection of
what happened."
(Email sent June 10, 1999)
Full text of
email:
Highly recommended: The above
(European) documentary: The Gate of Heavenly Peace - excellent.
And....type "gate+heavenly+peace" into a search engine such as www.google.com
As the June 4 anniversary comes round each year and world news services refer to
the “Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989”, please add a grain of salt. Many
people
did die in Beijing - workers, students, soldiers - but not in/on the square on
June 4.
For me, "Tiananmen Square Massacre" is in the same category as
"Iraq's had weapons of mass destruction"....despite media hype, not
true