NATIONALIST and Labour politicians have expressed anger, confusion and disbelief at comments by Sir Edward Heath, the former British Prime Minister, in which he linked the massacre in Tiananmen Square with the events of Bloody Sunday. Sources close to Sir Edward moved to quell the mounting controversy, caused by his comments during a BBC television discussion late on Wednesday night following the death of the Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping.
They insisted Sir Edward was attempting to explain his belief that the shootings in Tiananmen Square had "caused great distress to the Beijing authorities" as the killings of innocent civilians in Derry had caused similar distress to the British government of the day.
Having heard Sir Edward express admiration for the former leader's achievements for the Chinese economy, the Newsnight presenter, Jeremy Paxman, interjected that "he shot a lot of people in Tiananmen Square".
Sir Edward angrily replied: "Well, of course this is just like the British, it's the only thing you can bring up and we are the only country which does still bring it up. There was a crisis in Tiananmen Square after a month in which the civil authority was being defied, and they took action about it. Very well. We can criticise it in exactly the same way as people criticise Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland, but that isn't by any means the whole story. Why can't we also look at the rest of his achievements?"
Mr Seamus Mallon, the SDLP deputy leader, said: "It seems incredible that the murder of people in Tiananmen Square, and by association the murder of people in Derry on Bloody Sunday, was a necessary part of good government - and that the human rights consideration was secondary to the improvements he brought to the Chinese economy. That's an appalling indictment."
Mr Kevin McNamara of the British Labour Party asked: "Is he really putting Bloody Sunday on the same basis as Tiananmen Square, comparing a democratic government's actions with those of a communist dictatorship, or is he saying these incidents were not of major importance in the great run of history? In which case he has gravely misjudged both incidents. Northern Ireland should remind him what a constant running sore Bloody Sunday is."
Sources close to Sir Edward said these reactions were completely mistaken. The events in Tiananmen Square were "absolutely wrong" and he had told the Chinese authorities so. "The point he was trying to make was that, far from being murderous dictators - as they were being described in various programmes - they were greatly distressed about Tiananmen Square as we, the British, were about Bloody Sunday."
Dr Mo Mowlam, the Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, accepted that interpretation. She said: "I assume Mr Heath was implying that both Tiananmen Square and Bloody Sunday were an affront to the civilised world."