Students ‘got what they deserved’

Press, 28 June 1989, Page 10

Students ‘got what they deserved’

NZPA-AP Peking Demonstrators shot while resisting the Army’s drive to crush seven weeks of pro-democracy protests “got what they deserved,” according to a senior military officer. The official press said the Communist Party was prepared to expel members who participated in the student-led movement for a freer China, suggesting a full-scale purge after the week-end announcement that the moderate party chief, Zhao Ziyang, had been ousted from his party posts. Li Zhiyun, one of the commanders of the June 3-4 military assault in Peking, said yesterday that he had “no regrets” about what Chinese and

foreign onlookers have said was a massacre of unarmed residents and students. Mr Li, speaking to foreign reporters invited to , tour Tiananmen Square, emphasised the Government line that no shots were fired at students during the assault to remove thousands of student activists from the square. “The whole process was non-violent. No-one used guns,” he said. Mr Li said troops shot into the air once, when “thugs” occupying a building to the south-east of the square opened fire, wounding one soldier. He acknowledged some innocent people “may have been wounded.” "When our troops

moved to the square we received persistent resistance,” Mr Li said. “Individuals even used guns to kill our warriors. We were forced to defend ourselves. This group of people got what they deserved.” • European Community Foreign Ministers agreed yesterday on a series of measures to protest against what they called brutal repression in China. The Spanish Foreign Minister, Francisco Fernandez Ordonez, said they expressed outrage at continuing executions and proposed to ban arms sales, suspend new cooperation projects, limit scientific and technical co-operation projects, and suspend high-level visits.