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  • Sentnear [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    How comes massacre is in quotation marks there? Is what you hear/get taught in the west different from what actually happened?

    • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]
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      4 years ago

      I believe this was the leaked cable from it.

      https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/89BEIJING18828_a.html

      THEY WERE ABLE TO ENTER AND LEAVE THE SQUARE SEVERAL TIMES AND WERE NOT HARASSED BY TROOPS. REMAINING WITH STUDENTS BY THE MONUMENT TO THE PEOPLE'S HEROES UNTIL THE FINAL WITHDRAWAL, THE DIPLOMAT SAID THERE WERE NO MASS SHOOTINGS OF STUDENTS IN THE SQUARE OR AT THE MONUMENT.

      about a "massacre":

      WHEN POLOFF MENTIONED SOME REPORTEDLY EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS OF MASSACRES AT THE MONUMENT WITH AUTOMATIC WEAPONS, GALLO SAID THAT THERE WAS NO SUCH SLAUGHTER. ONCE AGREEMENT WAS REACHED FOR THE STUDENTS TO WITHDRAW, LINKING HANDS TO FORM A COLUMN, THE STUDENTS LEFT THE SQUARE THROUGH THE SOUTHEAST CORNER. ESSENTIALLY EVERYONE, INCLUDING GALLO, LEFT.

      about the body count:

      FROM THE ALLEY THEY SAW TROOPS CLEARING THE SQUARE PILING UP LARGE PLASTIC BAGS AND DRAGGING THEM TO HELICOPTERS. THEY COULD NOT COMMENT ON WHETHER THE BAGS CONTAINED REFUSE OR BODIES. AT THE TIME, THEY SAID, THEY COULD NOT IMAGINE THE BAGS CONTAINED BODIES AND HAD ASSUMED IT WAS GARBAGE. ALTHOUGH HE DID NOT ACTUALLY WITNESS ANY LARGE SCALE SHOOTINGS ON THE SQUARE PROPER,

      okay, so he saw no death in the actual square, and somehow confused a what i'm assuming near 6foot long body bags with trash bags. Interesting.

      GALLO SAW MANY CASUALTIES BROUGHT INTO THE SQUARE AND DID NOT DOUBT THAT HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE IN BEIJING WERE KILLED BY THE ARMY ON JUNE 3 AND 4.

      Well i'm glad he had no doubt despite not actually seeing any death at any time. (IMO - i have no proof either way - some civilians most likely were killed, but probably not massacre style)

      tl;dr - some civilains might have been killed (bad) but it definitely wasn't just a bunch of soliders firing on civlians for no reason or without provocation. It seems like the killings weren't even in Tianamon square itself. And.. literally might not have even happened.