New story emerges of an infamous massacre

In fact, the panic was so intense that most impartial observers left the square by midnight. In those days, says one European journalist who was there, "no one ever believed that the Army would actually shoot people."

As few as 10 foreigners actually witnessed events on the square during the crucial early morning hours of June 4 , according to eyewitnesses interviewed by the Monitor, and an unpublished 52-page document compiled entirely in the weeks after by Robin Munro (then of Human Rights Watch) and Richard Nations (a Le Monde reporter) of 14 testimonials of journalists, diplomats, and students present on the square after midnight.

Despite orders that the People's Liberation Army was to clear Tiananmen Square using whatever means necessary, there is no credible eyewitness testimony of a massacre of students there. No eyewitnesses at the Monument to the People's Heroes, where students were centered, ever saw one. No "rivers of blood" flowed on the square. No rows of students were mowed down by a sudden rush of troops, as reported in European, Hong Kong, and US publications in the days, months, and years that followed.

The actual number of students and citizens killed on the square may be as low as a dozen, according to the documents and the eyewitnesses. The medical tent on the square, originally used to comfort student hunger strikers, reported at least 10 deaths. Rather, between the morning hours of 4:45 and 6:15, some 2,000 to 3,000 students filed off the square through a cordon of troops, protected by a line of their own ranks who linked arms.

There was, however, a massacre in Beijing - during the four days starting June 3. It took place at street intersections, in Hutong neighborhoods, in the alleyways around the square, and in the western part of the city, where resistance to the deployment of the Army was strongest. Moreover, the victims were not only students, but ordinary people who were outraged that the soldiers of a people's army had been given warrant to shoot the people.

One emerging interpretation of the June 4 event is that the students avoided a massacre - partly, and symbolically, by using their power to vote.

By 4 a.m. on the square, one of the most dangerous moments had arrived. In testimony compiled by Mr. Munro, and including Mr. Nations, and Juan Restrepro of Spanish TV, among others - all of whom stayed with the students until they left the square - matters had by then reached a "lethal" tension point. Soldiers surrounded the students from three sides - at the Forbidden City, Great Hall of the People, and the History Museum. The square was lighted. Some 2,000 students huddled at the towering monument at center square. They sang the "Internationale," with its verse, "the final battle is upon us, unite until the morrow." Orange flames from burning tents leapt up.

Students wore headbands that said "ready to die." Military loudspeakers competed with student loudspeakers. Students urged each other to, "Keep order, stay calm. We must not give them a pretext [to shoot.]" At one point about 4:15 the lights on the square went out and some 10,000 People's Liberation Army troops ran out of the entrance of the Great Hall in what seemed an attempt to frighten students into scattering. But they remained poised.

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