US releases documents, 25 years after the Tiananmen massacre

The US Defense Intelligence Agency released 25 previously undisclosed documents to mark the passing of 25 years since the Tiananmen Square massacre of thousands of pro-democracy supporters.

The reports were written by witnesses present in Beijing during those days of dread and horror, after the martial law was enforced.

On June 4, 1989, soldiers opened fire on pro-democracy protesters who had been on a 6-day hunger strike in the Tiananmen Square. They used metal penetrating ammunition and shot even buses of workers returning home and ambulances.

The de-classified reports reveal that soldiers called from outside Beijing to reinforce troops in Tiananmen Square were 'laughing' as they were randomnly shooting terrified sutdents: the '27th Army' opened fire 'at random at any assembly of persons they encountered', no matter if they were 'demonstrators or not.'

Another report which covered the events on June 4 from inside a hospital said that the hospital's director stopped bodies from being released after they discovered that, as soon as bodies were handed over to the Public Security Bureau, they were cremated in an attempt to cover-up the extent of the massacre. Furthermore, doctors and hospital staff began photographing each of the corpses brought in so that they could be recognized later on.

The same report reads: 'the real heroes of the massacre were the flatcar pedicab operators who volunteered their services to transport the wounded and dead from Tiananmen Square area to the hospital at the risk of losing their own lives in the process.'

In another report, life in Beijing after the government crackdown is described, while the city was still under martial law. It says that officials, scared of a possible terrorist attack, changed cars and license plates 'as an added security precaution.'

As for the students still alive, the report says that there were 'more arrested students then they have prison space.' Moreover, security forces were 'especially strict for any Chinese who happened to look like a student or an intellectual.'

Now, 25 years later, the Chinese are strictly prohibited to talk about the events on June 4, 1989, additional police forces have been called in to reinforce the area of Tiananmen Square and the media simply ignores the anniversary.