People gather at UBC to remember thousands who died in Tiananmen Massacre

Flowers were placed by the Goddess of Democracy statue at UBC on Sunday in memory of the thousands who died during the Tiananmen Massacre.

Every year on the Sunday before June 4, people gather to remember those murdered in 1989 in Tiananmen Square.

The memorial is organized by the Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement, and they say the annual event is necessary to preserve the memory of the victims.

“We won’t want to be here, but we have to be here,” said Mabel Tung, chair of the organization. “We have to continue to remember the students that died.”

Adding, “the students mothers still cannot openly remember their children, we have to make sure we remember it here in Vancouver, and also around the world … you have to pass the message to our next generation to make sure this piece of history is still alive.”

Diana Lary, retired history professor at UBC, was in China at the time of the massacre and said the event was the most important moment of her life.

“It was an absolute tragedy, the crushing of these beautiful young students who would now be middle-aged, for no particular reason other than the Communist Party’s great desire to hold power,” said Lary.

“The stupidity of it and the harshness made me very coldly angry, but also very grateful to be Canadian.”

Lary said while she is hopeful that one day the situation might change in China, she said the Tiananmen Massacre will not soon be forgotten.

“That date will always stick in Chinese history as a terrible wrong turning for the government. Whatever excuses people make, if you start killing people in the very centre of your city, you’re in serious trouble and it won’t be forgotten.”

The UBC statue is a replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue that once stood in Tiananmen Square before being knocked down by tanks during the 1989 tragedy.

According to Amnesty International “hundreds, if not thousands, of unarmed protesters and civilians were killed when soldiers opened fire in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.”