One can immediately draw a parallel between the massacre of Tiananmen and the riots in Tibet in March-April this year. Soon after the events, when someone asked me: "How many people were killed?" I replied "We will never know!"

Nearly three months after the March 14 incident in Lhasa, the Chinese authorities still claim that 13 people, mostly Chinese were killed, while the Tibetan government-in-exile alleges that in Lhasa alone, nearly 100 Tibetans lost their lives.

The analogy does not stop here. As in June 1989, according to Beijing, the casualties in Lhasa were mainly policemen and paramilitary staff (People's Armed Police) while according to the Dalai Lama's administration, it was mostly Tibetans who were shot at.

In both cases, the Chinese troops quickly removed the bodies and cleaned up, and the consequences for the surviving participants in both cases were ruthless. One young Tibetan who managed to escape to India after the March events recounts: '(One day) around one hundred soldiers entered my house, broke down five doors, checked everything and threw it all on the floor and hit everyone present there. It was like a robbery or burglary. There were a lot of firearms and they were very rough with us. I was arrested. They took me with them, with my thumbs tied behind my back, very tightly, resulting in the whole area being numb for the last two or three months. They treated us very harshly. Talking to each other, they said, "This is our chance", and they beat us.'

The Tiananmen Square episode was prompted by the death of former Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang who had resigned from his position on January 16, 1987 after some minor students' unrest. At that time, the People's Daily had expressed some sympathy with the students while affirming that 'the limits of official toleration were being approached.' A US embassy official had noted 'political stability has always been a critical consideration in China. There can be no doubt that the authorities will crack down, and crack down hard, if stability seems to be being called into question.'

Image: Over 20 armoured personnel carriers were burnt by demonstrators to prevent troops from moving into Tiananmen Square. On the night of June 3-4, 1989, Tiananmen Square sheltered the last pro-democracy supporters. Chinese troops forcibly marched on the square to end the weeks-long occupation by student protestors, using lethal force to remove opposition it encountered along the way. Hundreds of demonstrators were reportedly killed in the crackdown. Photograph: Manuel Ceneta/AFP/Getty Images

Also see: Why China will change: The Tibet factor

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