Chinese officials have decided not to hold the beach volleyball venue on Tiananmen Square during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Beach volleyball on the square—the site of the 1989 bloody crackdown on student democracy protesters—was originally proposed by Beijing officials while bidding for the Games in 2000, although they later changed their minds.

The event will be held at Beijing’s Chaoyang Park, east of the Olympic Green, the main Games site, a source from the Beijing 2008 organizing committee told Reuters news agency.

Feng Qihua of the organizing committee told Reuters, “We think this site is especially suited for the beach volleyball event,” although he did not specify why the venue was moved.

Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) had originally insisted that beach volleyball be played on Tiananmen Square. FIVB’s website reported that after a heated but frank exchange between FIVB and Beijing Olympics officials on May 16, FIVB agreed to no longer insist beach volleyball be played on Tiananmen Square and Beijing officials agree not to hold the venue on the Olympic Green.

Tiananmen Square, where hundreds, if not thousands, of students were killed in the 1989 crackdown, is a sensitive issue for the Chinese communist regime. Many human rights organizations opposed the International Olympic Committee’s decision to award Beijing the 2008 games, pointing to the regime’s human rights record. Groups in the country like house Christians, Tibetans, Uighurs Muslims, Falun Gong and democracy advocates are severely suppressed.