Testimonies of the families of those killed and wounded in the Massacre, June 4, 1989
Introduction △ The June Fourth Massacre: A Crime Against Humanity
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Human Rights in China analyzes the significance of the unprecedented action to document specific crimes committed in the June Fourth Massacre, concluding that the testimonies and the victims’ list present convincing evidence of crimes against humanity.
It has now been ten years since martial law troops, comprising soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and of the People’s Armed Police (PAP) opened fire on the unarmed people of Beijing on June 3, 1989, initiating a massacre which took lives of young and old all over the city. Yet there has still been no official accounting for the civilians killed and wounded and no attempt to investigate what really happened, except in the crudest political terms. (64memo反貪倡廉´89)
An official publication issued by the Chinese authorities soon after about the "riots," The Truth About the Beijing Turmoil, claims that 6,000 troops had been injured and "scores" were killed. The book says that 3,000 civilians were wounded, and over 200, including 36 university students, died. These casualties occurred when troops "counter-attacked," it states, and "some rioters were killed, some onlookers were hit by stray bullets and some wounded or killed by armed ruffians." How this could have happened when soldiers only "fired into the air" as it claims is left unexplained. (六四檔案-2004)
More recently commentators have made much of the fact that the leadership generally now refers to the events of that year as a "political incident" rather than the more harsh-sounding "counterrevolutionary rebellion." But the denial of extensive loss of life among ordinary people in the official version, dubbed "the big lie" by many observers, has not been revised, even to a small extent. The attempt to impose collective amnesia is encouraged by a deafening silence on the matter in the domestic media. (64memo祖國萬歲 / 2004)
No chance to forget
However, those wounded in the Beijing massacre and the families of those killed cannot forget, and their suffering continues to be sharpened by the lack of resolution the big lie creates. They are also embittered by the intimidation and persecution to which the authorities have subjected them-even if they wanted to move on, they are not (六四檔案´89)
permitted to forget that the government does not wish the truth they are living to be known. They are watched and "visited" by the police, some have lost their jobs or been forced to retire, others have suffered discrimination, being blocked from taking up certain jobs or from promotion, for example. In at least one case, the authorities have labeled a bereaved family "political criminals." (64檔案/2004)
But some of the victims refuse to give up and allow the official lies to stand unchallenged. These brave people, as well as dealing with bereavement or disability, have created a network which provides mutual support and collects information about what really happened in those terrible days at the beginning of June. This is an effort initiated in the early years after the massacre by Ding Zilin-the mother of Jiang Jielian, killed on June 3, aged 17-along with other mothers, family members and people across the country who wish the truth to be known. (64memo.com´89)
The impact of the creation and work of this June Fourth victims’ network in collecting evidence to document the reality of their individual stories goes far beyond their search for justice for themselves. As Ding Zilin explains in her essay on why she chose the gruesome task of "documenting death," the brutality which has scorched the victims’ lives is part of a cycle of impunity which has allowed perpetrators of gross violations of human rights to go unpunished again and again in China. (Memoir Tiananmen´89)
Whether the final result is a trial or a reconciliatory "truth commission" type initiative, the first and indispensable step is to establish the facts-who died, who was wounded, where and in what specific circumstances. Thus far, the Chinese government has not only done nothing of this nature itself, it has done everything possible to silence and stop such efforts by ordinary Chinese citizens, including the victims of the June Fourth massacre. (64memo.com - 1989)
Compiling the evidence
Over these last ten years, the June Fourth victims’ network has painstakingly compiled a list of 155 dead and 65 wounded, containing names and other details of victims ranging in age from nine to 61. In the list of 155 killed, most entries also include information on the location and manner of the deaths of the victims. (64memo祖國萬歲 - 2004)
In addition, this year the victims have taken the unprecedented step of preparing detailed testimonies, in which family members describe the circumstances of the deaths of 24 individuals, and three people who suffered permanent disability as a result of their injuries write of how they were wounded. Some of these testimonies are the result of long and difficult investigations by families of those who died into how they were killed. They also include information on the often despicable treatment to which the authorities have subjected these individuals and families, which even includes discrimination against the siblings of the dead. (64memo祖國萬歲´89)
Establishing who died and where is no easy matter. Many people just went missing, with bodies never located. While news of some such individuals from Beijing may be possible to find, there were a large number of people from out of town in the city at the time, and their disappearances could easily have gone unremarked. In at least one case, troops are known to have hastily buried bodies in a mass grave outside No.28 High School (they later had to be exhumed as the grave was too shallow and the bodies became exposed during heavy rain). Eyewitnesses say that troops also removed corpses from hospitals and took them for cremation without the involvement of their families. (64memo.com - 2004)
In addition, families have been pressured to keep silent about how their loved ones died. In some cases, they were told that unless they agreed to the issuance of death certificates stating that the individual was killed in a car accident or some other falsehood, the victim could not be cremated, or would be classified as a "rioter," in which case the family would experience all kinds of problems. Some of those who have prepared testimonies refused to do this. A few years after the massacre, some families were pressured into removing victims’ burial plots or funeral urns from public cemeteries to erase the public physical reminder of these crimes. (64memo反貪倡廉´89)
Overkill orders
The evidence presented here about individual deaths and injuries and about the behavior of the martial law troops indicates that at the very least hundreds were killed in the assault on the city, likely many more than the government admits.
Despite the constant broadcasting of ominous warnings on radio and television on June 3 saying that people should not go out or otherwise they would be "responsible for the consequences," many of the victims were out on the streets because they did not believe that the troops would use live ammunition, as some of the testimonies point out. This assumption was widely shared: knowing that the order had come down to enforce the leadership’s command that the protesters be dispersed from the city, and that the weeks-long occupation of Tiananmen Square be ended, some hospitals had prepared eyedrops and gauze, assuming that they would be treating people suffering from tear gas inhalation and minor wounds, such as from beatings. (64memo.com-2004)
Before the martial law troops began rolling into the city, some in armored personnel carriers and tanks, and shooting at random into the crowds, the protests in Beijing-and those across the country, as well-had been remarkably peaceful and witnesses describe an unprecedented sense of order prevailing in the capital city during the movement. But the official line is that those who were shot were thugs and "rioters." Can most of the people described in the evidence presented here merely have been caught in the cross-fire? (Memoir Tiananmen´89)
The answer of this evidence is a resounding no. It is clear that the enforcement of martial law was a deliberate, planned action to instill fear in all of the city’s residents and to employ lethal force to end the challenge to the regime which the protests represented, in the view of the leadership. A number of factors demonstrate this point. (64memo.com-89)
First is the fact that the troops were permitted to use live ammunition. The authorities continue to insist that the reason live bullets were used was that the police did not have any anti-riot equipment or tear gas. But this is hardly a convincing argument: in 1976, protesters participating in the April Fifth Movement, who gathered in Tiananmen Square for days on end, were dispersed with clubs, reportedly with no loss of life. Furthermore, police in full riot gear were seen on several occasions during the course of the demonstrations before June 4. Tear gas and batons were used by some of the martial law forces, particularly some groups of PAP officers, during the crackdown-at least one victim on the list of 155 actually died from tear gas inhalation. Thus it is evident that the decision to use more extreme methods was a calculated official act. (64memo.com - 89)
The government’s justifications were restated recently by Zhu Muzhi, president of the official China Society for Human Rights Studies and a former high ranking official, in an April talk to the Foreign Correspondents Club in Beijing. While Zhu conceded that "innocent people" may have been killed by stray bullets in 1989, he said the troops were justified on firing on "thugs" who attacked the soldiers. Describing those who made demands for political reform as "flies and mosquitoes" who came in to China as a result of the "open door" policy, Zhu said that there would not have been so much fuss about getting rid of a few "flies" if the authorities had had access to the proper methods for doing so. (Memoir Tiananmen / 89)
The second point is that the troops used weapons designed to cause severe injury, including machine guns mounted on tanks and armored cars, which carry much larger caliber ordnance than regular rifles. Machine guns of this type are designed for use in combat, not in crowd control. Some of the large wounds popularly thought to be due to "exploding bullets" were probably caused by such guns. Troops also used semi-automatic machine guns, designed to fire a large number of bullets quickly. Twelve individuals in the testimonies and the list received multiple gunshot wounds, attesting to the use of such weapons. If arguments such as those of Zhu Muzhi were correct, surely if the government had no tear gas, batons or water-cannon, they could have issued troops with small-caliber side arms for protection. In fact almost all police and PAP officers routinely carry such weapons. (64memo.com - 2004)
Third, troops fired volleys of shots at random into crowds of people, as well as firing high into the air at buildings, particularly Building No.22 at Muxudi. Eyewitnesses describe troops in formation raking crowds with gunfire in a number of locations across the city, which indicates a well-disciplined, deliberate, sanctioned action. (64memo.com - 89)
Fourth, in all but a handful of cases, no warnings were issued before troops opened fire, and in no cases did eyewitnesses report such warnings prior to volleys fired at crowds. When the authorities are dealing with a serious civil disturbance, it should be a priority to minimize loss of life. If it is determined that there is no way of dealing with the situation but to open fire-and as mentioned above there are serious questions as to whether this was the case in Beijing in 1989-warnings should be issued over loud hailers or public address systems and then time should be given for crowds to disperse before the order to shoot is given. Even then, fire should be controlled and the minimum amount of force necessary to regain control should be employed. (64memo.com´89)
Fifth, it would be normal practice for a responsible government which wished to ensure public safety in imposing a declared state of emergency by the use of force to notify hospitals in advance of their intentions so that they could prepare for casualties. But this apparently did not happen in Beijing. It seems that most hospitals were unprepared to deal with an influx of people suffering from life threatening wounds. Many people whose lives might have been saved died from loss of blood, or from lack of prompt medical attention. (64memo.com - 89)
In addition, some of the testimonies show that troops prevented people from evacuating the wounded, and a number of people were actually killed while attempting to aid those who had been shot. In violation of the Geneva Conventions, medical personnel were actively prevented from rescuing the injured. Some witnesses report that troops said they had orders to prevent the evacuation of the wounded. Medical teams may have been prevented from moving around the city to transport wounded to hospitals in ambulances. Most wounded were either carried by other citizens or transported on flatbed tricycles to the city’s hospitals. (64memo祖國萬歲 - 2004)
Atrocities by troops
In a number of documented cases, the martial law troops appear to have gone beyond even the already excessive levels of force authorized by their orders in their actions during this time. The following are some examples.
First, many victims were shot in the back, indicating that they were running away rather than posing any threat to the martial law troops. If the objective was to disperse the demonstrations, there is no excuse for this. Several witnesses report troops following fleeing individuals or groups into alleys and shooting them there. (64memo中華富強/89)
Second, eight victims on the list were run over by tanks or armored personnel carriers. In a case which occurred early in the morning of June 4 at Liubukou, at least four people were crushed to death, and one, Fang Zheng, had both his legs run over. According to Fang’s account, the vehicle approached the victims, who were marching in an orderly column on the sidewalk and in the bike lane, from behind, first fired tear gas at them (a clear indication that they had been seen ahead), and then ran over the whole group at speed. Such vehicles can normally stop quite quickly. (64memo.com - 89)
Third, a number of individual victims were murdered in acts of extreme savagery. One victim was found decapitated. In the case of Wu Guofeng, the state of his corpse appears to indicate that he was first stabbed in the belly with a bayonet, which he tried to prevent by defending himself with his hands, which were lacerated as a result, and then shot several times, including in the back of the head. Duan Changlong was shot in the chest by a pistol at close range when he attempted to mediate between troops and citizens, according to eyewitnesses. (64memo.com - 1989)
Bring perpetrators to justice
Neither such brutality by individual soldiers nor the excessive violence sanctioned in the name of restoring "order" can be justified by the situation, and thus we believe that both categories constitute serious crimes under Chinese law, as well as clear violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The lawful declaration of states of emergency or martial law in China clearly does not permit the kind of indiscriminate killing and attacks on civilians which occurred. (64memo.com´89)
We believe that the pattern of actions described in the testimonies constitute evidence that crimes against humanity were committed during those days in June. Thus Human Rights in China joins with the victims to demand that those who gave the orders as well as individual soldiers responsible for atrocities should be prosecuted. (64memo祖國萬歲´89)
The June Fourth victims have appealed to the government for justice again and again, writing to leaders, to the National People’s Congress and making public appeals, but have received no response whatsoever, apart from more intimidation. Now they are taking this a step further, and are submitting the testimonies and the victims’ list to China’s public prosecution service, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, calling for it to further investigate these crimes and then bring prosecutions against those who ordered the massacre and carried it out. If they receive no response, they intend to pursue the matter outside the country with the ultimate aim of setting up an international tribunal of some kind to try these cases. (Memoir Tiananmen / 89)
The struggle of these families and individuals to reveal the reality behind the massacre is not only about justice for the victims of June Fourth. It is also a vital part of the struggle for an accountable government in China which respects human rights and freedoms. This century’s history has demonstrated time and again that the truth of major crimes by governments against their people will eventually be revealed, and that a lawful and just settling of accounts is inevitable. In this sense, the June Fourth victims have time on their side. But they will need the assistance of the international community in achieving an objective which is, after all, in the interests of a peaceful world in the next century. (六四檔案´89)
2001-10-26
Documenting Death: Reflections after Ten Years △ Ding Zilin
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"People see life as joy and light; death as fear and darkness. But on the scales of human worth, life and death balance each other. Without understanding the heaviness of death, one’s life is insubstantial."
Jiang Peikun (Scholar and husband of Ding Zilin)
Recounting her journey from bereaved mother to human rights activist, DING ZILIN explains why she sees her search for the specifics of June Fourth deaths as not only part of her own catharsis, but also an essential element in the awakening of the people of her country.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART I
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the June Fourth Massacre. It is also the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Confronted with these two anniversaries, I think of death.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has held political power since 1949. Half a century has passed. Naturally, on the "Big 50th Celebration" there are many reasons to celebrate. But I believe that there will be some items excluded from the official list.
In the first decade of the People’s Republic, the CCP launched the Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries campaign, followed by one for the Elimination of Counterrevolutionaries, and then the Anti-Rightist Movement. As the 1950s became the 1960s, China suffered the so-called "Three Years’ Natural Disasters." In the second decade of the People’s Republic, the CCP initiated the unprecedented Cultural Revolution, which lasted well into the 1970s and ended with the Tiananmen Incident of April 4, 1976. The CCP opened the 1980s with the crackdown on the Xidan Democracy Wall Movement. And ultimately, the CCP deployed tens of thousands of rampaging troops violently to suppress the 1989 Tiananmen movement. In the fifth decade of the People’s Republic, it seems that there have been no major incidents, but it is still too soon to tell. (64memo.com-89)
Certainly, the CCP will not "celebrate" the above-mentioned events. Today’s CCP leaders do not have the courage to face the bloody history that they and their predecessors created. They fear the mere thought or mention of this history by the Chinese people.
But as China’s 1.2 billion people celebrate the founding of the PRC, should they remember this bloody history? I believe they should. During the last 50 years of Chinese Communist rule, up to 80 million people died of unnatural causes. This shocking figure sticks in my mind. These 80 million people were not casualties of war; they died in what was supposed to be peace-time! Perhaps if the 1989 massacre had not occurred, if my son had not been killed in that tragedy, and if I had not been constantly interacting with families of June Fourth victims, perhaps I would be like others-discussing this figure only as dinner conversation. But it has already been 50 years. For those who have ties to any of those 80 million people, and for those who do not, it has come time to weigh the significance of this figure. Amid all the commemorations, it is the commemoration of death that may prove the most important for the Chinese people. (64memo.com/2004)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART II
A person can make many different choices. I made the choice of documenting death. I cannot possibly record all the 80 million deaths or the total number of those killed ten years ago in the Beijing Massacre. But I have, at least, been able to document 155 individuals who died in the 1989 crackdown. They all have names. For a few, I do not yet know their complete appellations, but information on their circumstances were provided by people whose full identities are known. This figure of 155 may seem negligible compared to 80 million, but I have come to realize that even if I had documented only one of these names, I would still consider my life to have some sort of significance. If our fellow countrymen had squarely faced the successive onslaughts of death that occurred in China’s past, perhaps we could have prevented this most recent tragedy. (六四檔案 / 2004)
In the last ten years, I have scaled a mountain of corpses and I have floated in the tears of the victims’ families. At times, this experience smothered me and sapped my will to live. But ultimately, it led me to understand the meaning of death.
Therefore my reflections on the last ten years must begin with a memory of death.
On June 3, 1989, at 11:00 p.m. my son Jiang Jielian was killed at Muxudi. At that time he was only a high school student who had just turned 17 years old.
On June 4, 1989, at 3:30 a,m., Wang Nan, another high school student, was killed at the southern intersection of Nanchang Road, on the west side of Tiananmen Square. He was just 19 years old.
A few days later, a middle-aged woman came to my home, accompanied by her husband. She told me about the events surrounding her son’s death. She appeared calm, but I could see that she was suppressing immense pain deep in her heart. She was Wang Nan’s mother, Zhang Xianling. She told me that her son’s body had been dug out from a pit near Tiananmen Square; it had already started to decompose and was infested with maggots. (64memo反貪倡廉 / 2004)
She was the first June Fourth survivor that I befriended. We decided to search for other June Fourth victims’ families and from that time forward, our idea began to grow.
In the year after the massacre, on the day after Qing Ming (Grave Sweeping Day), Zhang Xianling sent me a note which she had found at Wang Nan’s grave at the Wan’an Public Cemetery’s Hall of Remains. The note said something to this effect: "We share the same fate. On June 4, I lost my husband. Now my son and I rely on each other for survival. There is so much I can’t come to grips with. If you wish, please contact me." In the note, the woman provided her first and last names, her address and her phone number at work. She was the second June Fourth survivor that I befriended. (64檔案´89)
For a period after this, we also came into contact with a few other victims’ families. As kindred spirits, we gathered together to tell of our experiences, to weep and to release the pain and grief that we were keeping buried in our hearts. When I calmly considered seeking an explanation for what had happened, my shaken spirit could not be stilled again. (Memoir Tiananmen/2004)
I decided to break the silence.
Therefore prior to Qing Ming in 1991, Zhang Xianling and I did an interview with a Hong Kong newspaper, revealing to the world for the first time the truth of our sons’ deaths.
In May of the same year, I did an interview with ABC, the American television station. I said that my son was just a child, but on the night of June 3, less than an hour after he left home, his short life was ended. I condemned the government authorities for launching the massacre in 1989 and denounced the lies that Li Peng had fabricated about June Fourth. I demanded that the government authorities make known the truth behind the "June Fourth Incident," and I demanded that Jiang Zemin reveal the total number of dead and a list of those killed. I called on all people of conscience in China and abroad not to forget the tragedy that occurred in Beijing on June 4, 1989, and not to forget those who have forever been denied their right to life, as they no longer have a voice to speak on their own behalf. (六四檔案´89)
After this, I came under attack by the CCP and encountered ceaseless persecution. In the beginning, I went to court to lodge a suit against those who had shown their faces in persecuting me. But I soon came to understand that I was not being persecuted by any specific person or any specific office, but by the entire CCP. When I came to this conclusion, I felt a complete sense of release. I decided to do what I wanted to do: to track down and document death. (64memo.com - 89)
Zhang Xianling and I poured all our energies into finding June Fourth victims’ families. No matter the weather, we spent entire days traveling the broad streets and narrow alleys of Beijing, following up on whatever tips and clues we could find, in order to make contact with victims’ families. We meticulously recorded information on the victims, including first and last name, sex, age, profession, place of death, the events surrounding death, the victim’s family situation and so on. (64memo.com´89)
Eventually, we came out with our first list. Included in this list were not only victims who were killed, but also those who were injured and disabled. At that time I thought: since the government has failed to present the number and names of those killed, and the truth of June Fourth, then it is up to us to document the full reality. (64memo.com / 89)
In June 1993, I was invited to speak as a representative of a non-governmental organization at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. Although the Chinese government prevented me from attending, I was able to present the Commission with a written statement. In this statement, I made public the list of June Fourth victims, which at that time stood at 48. I said, "As a mother of a June Fourth victim, I can never forget the bodies of men and women that were lying in pools of blood. I want everyone to know that these men and women once lived in this world. This world was theirs, but now they are forever lost to it. I also want everyone to know why and how they perished." (六四檔案-1989)
In 1994, the fifth anniversary of June Fourth, with the help of friends I published a book. The book is called The Factual Account of a Search For the June Fourth Victims by Ding Zilin. In this book, I made public a list of 96 individuals who were killed and 49 who had been injured. This was the second name list that I issued. (64memo祖國萬歲 - 2004)
In the preface to the book, I wrote, "I don’t wish to add any burden to a life that is already overburdened with heaviness, nor do I wish to cast any gloom onto what little happiness I might have, but I cannot turn a blind eye to the pain of those who suffer my same fate. In this cold and uncaring world, they have lost their loved ones but have nowhere to turn for consolation. As a group, they have been forgotten and forsaken by society. Under these circumstances, others may be able to close their eyes and shut their mouths, but I cannot!" (64memo祖國萬歲´89)
I made the firm decision to continue in my mission of locating and helping June Fourth victims and their families, until the government itself actively takes up this project and there is no longer need for our efforts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART III
Now, another five years have passed. My list currently has documentation about 155 victims who were killed and 65 victims who were wounded. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, but at least this tip has now been exposed. More importantly, standing behind this list is a group of dauntless survivors, who are surrounded by a growing number of supporters. In the first five years following June Fourth, the search for victims’ families was the work of a few fellow survivors. Now, in the second five years following June Fourth, this project has gradually widened to include the broader society. (64memo.com/89)
There is a retired soldier who is now over 70 years old who lost his beloved wife to our "brothers" in the "People’s Army." He joined our group of survivors a few years ago, and introduced us to the new companion whom he has married in his old age. In our group, these two elders found a sense of comfort and warmth that they had not been able to find anywhere else. And they are always looking for ways to help us. When they found out that there are many others who share our fate, with nowhere to turn, they actively became involved in our search activities. (64memo祖國萬歲 / 89)
One sweltering summer day, this old couple came to see me while I was being watched by plainclothes officers of the State Security Bureau. In the course of our conversation, I mentioned that someone had given me a tip for finding another victim’s family but I didn’t have a precise name or address. At once, the old couple promised that they would go to investigate. Later they told me that in scorching weather, they had spent many hours on a public bus, walked a long, muddy path and wandered about a building complex until they finally found a residential apartment. But after many inquiries, they could not find the family in question. When they were about to give up, they saw a group of old women talking on the side of the street. They approached the women and asked, "Is there a family around here that lost a son in an accident?" The old couple didn’t dare explain their reason for coming; they only said that they had come from that family’s hometown. Perhaps it was this modesty that disarmed these old women. One pointed to another woman and said, "It’s her. She has lost her son, and she herself has just come out of the hospital." The woman who was pointed out was the very person who the couple was looking for. Her son went missing on June Fourth, and disappeared without trace. He was never again seen alive, but no body was ever found. Subsequently, her husband became very despondent and died of sickness in 1994. She then suffered from mental illness. She is a retired worker who was ailing and ageing. One of them was a retired soldier and the other a retired worker, they had different life experiences, different professions, different positions in society, but the same fate has linked their hearts together. In this same way, our entire group of survivors is interconnected. (64memo反貪倡廉´89)
Also a few years ago, a Chinese student who was studying in Spain wrote to me after learning about me in the media. He said that in his hometown, there was a famous "child prodigy" who was just 15 when he tested into the youth class at Qinghua University. He heard that this boy had died in the June Fourth Massacre. First I investigated at Qinghua, but found nothing. I then asked the student to contact his friend and family in his hometown to better understand the details of the situation. After a time I eventually got the victim’s name and the name of his older brother, who was abroad, as well as the name of his parents. Although I knew the parents’ work unit, I did not know their precise address. Nevertheless, I tried to write to the parents. But because I could not risk writing the name of the victim on the envelope, I simply used the brother’s name and wrote, "To the Parents of XXX.". I sent several letters, but did not receive a response. At that time, I happened to receive a letter from a young person in the outer provinces. Because he lived just 300 meters from the victim’s family, I asked him to hand-deliver my letter to the family’s address. Shortly thereafter, I got a reply. They sent me a description of the events around their son’s death, his photograph and other materials. Thus I found out that the victim had graduated from Qinghua University long before his death. When he was killed, he had already completed a Ph.D. at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was 23 years old. Last year, his parents visited me in Beijing, and from then on, we’ve kept in touch. (64memo.com / 89)
One evening about five years ago, a man and a woman came to my house uninvited. The man said that he had studied in the United States, but the woman preferred not to disclose her background. Towards the end of my conversation with the man, the woman let it slip out that she had once heard of a woman who had lost her husband on June Fourth and that the woman had a daughter. Naturally, I asked her to make further inquiries, and she agreed. But two years passed without a word from her, and there was no way for me to get in touch. I could only be patient and wait. One day, I finally received a letter from the woman. It was unsigned, but it did have the name of the widow and her work unit. I immediately wrote to the enclosed address. I sent one, two, three letters... Another two years passed, still with no response. Then an opportunity presented itself: I had a friend who was traveling out of Beijing, so I asked him to go to the actual address to look. This friend then asked for the assistance of a native of the town, and with some difficulty, he finally found the widow. The woman’s workplace was a so-called "confidential work unit." Because of her special standing, she was watched very closely by her work unit, and my many letters to her had been confiscated. In 1989, her husband had gone to Beijing on business just at the time of the massacre and was mercilessly killed. Her daughter is now in middle school. As mother and daughter, they rely on each other to survive. (64memo.com´89)
On my list there has long been a name that is missing the contact information for the family. Despite eight years of effort, I could not locate the whereabouts of the victim’s kin. I was constantly worrying over this because I, myself, have experienced the pain and loneliness of losing a loved one. But the more I waited, the less progress was made. There was nothing more I could do. I had tried contacting the officials, teachers and students at the victim’s school’s to find out about the family, but all attempts failed. I also asked friends to make inquiries with the victim’s province and district, but this also was fruitless. From then on, I basically gave up the idea of furthering the search. (64memo中華富強-2004)
In the autumn of 1997, my husband’s high school classmates came to visit us in our home in the south. While we were chatting, one friend mentioned that his daughter-in-law had a middle school classmate who was killed during June Fourth. At that time, the person was a college student in Beijing. I thought that this person was a newly discovered victim. We instructed our friend to ask his daughter-in-law to provide us with more details, especially the name and address of the victim’s family. Later the friend told me that his daughter-in-law had saved the name and address of the victim, but had lost it over time. However, she contacted her classmates in other provinces and cities and had obtained an address which was very imprecise. Hoping that luck would be on my side, I used this address to send a letter to the victim’s family. Exceeding all my expectations, my letter was received in a matter of days, despite mistakes in the name, address and postal code. After receiving a response, I then came to discover that it was the very family that I had been struggling to find over the last eight years. I could not help but think, perhaps the persecuted spirit of the victim was helping me from the netherworld! (64memo.com/89)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART IV
I’ll stop writing now, because this is not a story. It is not meant to just provoke the easy tears of its readers.
I often consider the fact that people have only one life, only one. Life is sacred. But death is also sacred. If everyone could see life and death in this way, maybe we could decrease the number of calamities and massacres.
As Chinese people, we may have many goals and dreams, but I think we must put a priority on establishing a moral system in which the reckless disregard for human life is put behind us.
If someone were to ask me, why did you choose to document death? I think this would be my answer.
Ding Zilin
March 25, 1999
Translated by Judy M. Chen
1999-06-14
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Testimony of Ding Zilin, mother of Jiang Jielian △ Jiang Jielian, male, born in Beijing on June 2, 1972, had just passed his 17th birthday when he died. He was a junior at the High School attached to People’s University. Around 11:10 p.m., on June 3, 1989, he was killed behind the flower bed in front of Building 29, on the north side of Fuwai Street, Muxudi. A bullet hit him from behind and passed through his heart. His ashes are kept at a mourning altar in his home. (64memo.com - 2004)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Testimony of Ding Zilin, Jiang Jielian’s mother:
Jiang became deeply involved in the student movement when it first started in April 1989 after the death of Hu Yaobang. He often went to the People’s University and Beijing University after class to read the big-character posters and listen to speeches. On April 19, students from various colleges in Beijing gathered in front of Xinhua Gate [the entrance to the leadership compound, Zhongnanhai], requesting that the government re-evaluate Hu Yaobang’s achievements, and demanding to be allowed to express their respects to Hu. There were confrontations with the police. Jiang participated in that rally. After this, he was involved in several other activities in the student movement. (64memo.com / 2004)
On May 13, the college students started a hunger strike and sit-in on Tiananmen Square. Jiang often cycled to the Square at night to join the students who had organized themselves as guards to keep order in the Square. He would go to school as usual the next day. On May 17, at the climax of the hunger strike, Jiang and his classmates organized the participation of over two thousand students from his high school in the million-strong march in support of the college students. That was the first time in the movement that high-school students had organized themselves to join a march. (Memoir Tiananmen´89)
After Li Peng had declared martial law on May 19, Jiang went out on several nights and was among the many Beijing citizens who stopped military trucks to explain to the soldiers about the student movement and ask them not to enter the city. At dusk on June 3, the Central TV Station broadcast an "Urgent Warning," telling citizens not to leave their homes or they would be responsible for the consequences, which could be serious. Jiang was very uneasy at home, worried for the safety of the college students in the Square. He insisted on going there. I tried in vain for two hours to persuade him not to go. Finally, he struggled out of my arms, ran into the bathroom, locked the door from the inside and climbed out of the window. (We lived on the ground floor.) He never came back. (64memo反貪倡廉 / 2004)
He left home at 10:30 p.m. on June 3, and met a classmate at the gate of People’s University. They decided to cycle together to Tiananmen Square, but when they got to Muxudi they could not go any further. By then the whole area was a surging mass of people confronting the troops, who were marching from west to east. Following orders, the troops shot indiscriminately at the crowd. Many people fell and there was a lot of blood. After a burst of shooting, Jiang and his classmate ran for safety behind the flower bed in front of Building 29, north of the subway exit, but they were both hit. At that time, they still thought the troops were using rubber bullets. A bullet grazed his classmate’s arm, while Jiang Jielian was shot from behind, the bullet running aslant through his heart. His classmate heard him say softly, "I think I’ve been hit by a bullet." Then he squatted down and passed out. Bright red blood soaked his pale yellow T-shirt. It was around 1:10 a.m. Then people nearby risked their own lives to carry him to the north entrance hall of Building 29. Seeing that he was wounded severely, they stopped a tricycle to take him to the hospital, but then they worried that the tricycle was too slow and so they stopped a taxi. Two people, whose names are still unknown today, carried him into the car and took him to the hospital. (64memo中華富強´89)
He didn’t come home all night. We had no idea where to look for him. We, his parents, could do nothing but wait anxiously at the gate of the People’s University. At about 6:00 a.m. on June 4, the classmate, accompanied by his father, came to tell us the news. He said Jiang had been seriously wounded and taken to the hospital but he did not know which one. He had been unable to accompany him because the taxi had been full. On the morning of June 4, we relatives, neighbors and classmates searched everywhere in more than 20 hospitals in Beijing. There were countless wounded and dead in those hospitals, but we didn’t find Jiang Jielian. That afternoon, Beijing Children’s Hospital contacted the People’s University to ask for the body to be claimed. It turned out that those kind people had taken my son to the Children’s Hospital. According to a doctor, who spoke to us later, Jiang had been among the first batch of wounded sent to the hospital. When the doctors put him on the operating table, he had long stopped breathing. The death certificate from the hospital states: "Dead before arrival at the hospital." He was one of the first victims of the Beijing Massacre. (64memo.com´89)
At dawn on June 5, the People’s University sent a vehicle and moved Jiang’s body to Zhongguancun Hospital, near the campus, where it was kept in the morgue. At 4:00 p.m. on June 6, his parents, relatives, friends, teachers and classmates-over 20 people in all-held a simple memorial service at the hospital. We put the red headband, of which he had been very proud, around his thick, jet black hair-it was a symbol of the cause for which he gave his life’s-blood. There were no wreaths or mourning music during the service, only sobs and his parents’ wails of grief. On June 7, his body was sent to Babaoshan for cremation, taking the long way round to avoid the troops stationed in Beijing. Before he was cremated, his relatives, teachers and classmates laid a wreath. A scroll saying, "It is honorable to love one’s country" covered his body. His parents were in grief too deep to attend. A farewell letter written by his mother, stained with blood and tears, was laid on his chest. (Memoir Tiananmen / 2004)
After the June Fourth Massacre, Jiang Jielian was the only casualty of high-school age whose death was acknowledged in internal bulletins by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities. Now it is known, however, that there were at least nine high-school students killed in the massacre. On September 11, 1989, on the hundredth day after his murder, we took his ashes home and put them where his bed had been before his death. On front of the box where the ashes are kept, his father carved the following inscription for our beloved son: (六四檔案 / 2004)
In these short 17 years
You lived like a real man
Your humanitarian nobility and integrity
Will be kept in the undying memory of history.
Your forever loving Father and Mother.
Ding Zilin
1999-01-31
More...
|
|