A Students Account of the Events

A Student's Eyewitness Account of the Tiananmen Massacre
China Times (weekly), New York, No. 224 (June 10, 1989), pp.24-25

In the predawn hours of June 4, I was sitting on the steps of the Monument to the People's Heroes. I saw with my own eyes what happened when the army opened fire on the students and citizens quietly in the square.

At midnight, after two armored vehicles sped down the side of the square from the front gate, the tension mounted. Thick formations of soldiers in steal helmets were moving into the square from all sides. In the dark, we could make out machine gun placements on the roof of the History Museum. The students crowded back around the Heroes Monument. At 4 A.M. Sunday the lights on the square were suddenly extinguished. Through the loudspeakers, we again heard orders to "clear out." Hunger strikers negotiated with the army for a peaceful retreat of the students. But just as we were about to move, at 4:40 A.M., a barrage of red flares shot into the sky. Immediately, the square was brightly illuminated. I saw that the front of the square was full of soldiers. From the Great Hall of the People, a squadron of soldiers rushed out, dressed in camouflage, carrying assault rifles, and wearing helmets and gas masks.

[The soldiers] were all holding electric cattle prods and rubber truncheons, and some special-purpose weapons that we did not recognize. They charged at us, breaking apart the formation in which we were sitting, beating us with all of their might. Our ranks were broken into two groups, and they forced their way through the middle to the third tier of the monument. I saw about 50 students who were so badly beaten that blood completely covered their faces.

At that moment, the armored vehicles and additional forces that had been waiting on the square closed in on us, and we were completely surrounded by rows and rows of vehicles, leaving only a small gap in the direction of the museum.

At the same time, the soldiers and military police who had reached the third tier went about smashing all of the students' printing and broadcasting equipment and dragged the students down from the steps. Even then we remained seated, holding hands and singing the "Internationale" and shouting, "The People's Army will not hurt the people!" But unable to resist the kicking and clubbing of such a large number of attackers, the students sitting on the third tier were forced down.

When they reached the ground, machine guns erupted. Some soldiers opened fire from kneeling positions, their bullets flying over our heads, but the gunners splayed on the ground were shooting right at the chests and heads of the students. When this happened, we could only retreat up the back of the monument. Then the machine guns stopped. But the beating of the soldiers above forced us back down. Then the machine guns started again. At this time, workers and citizens, putting their own lives aside, took up bottles, sticks, or anything that could be used as weapons, and rushed across to fight the soldiers

The Student Association urged everyone to get out of the square.

At that point a large number of students tried to get out through the gap in the armored vehicles. But even this exit was sealed off. Thirty armored cars came crashing into the crowd. Some students died under the wheels, and even the flagpole in front of the monument was knocked down.

I never thought that the students could be so courageous. One group went to try to turn over the vehicles, but were repulsed by bullets. Then a second wave, stepping over the bodies of those in front, rushed at the vehicles again, managing to topple one of them. Three thousand students, myself included, rushed out amid flying bullets through this opening toward the History Museum.

At this point, a crowd of citizens came rushing up the front gate and started fighting ferociously with the soldiers, they did this to protect use as we tried to break through in the direction of the railway station. The soldiers pursued us. By 5 A.M., the gunfire in the square was dying away.