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- WORLD, Page 32A Call to Arms
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- The young man on the videotape appeared pale and tired, but
- his identity was unmistakable. He was Wuer Kaixi, 21, the former
- Beijing Normal University freshman who emerged as the most
- charismatic leader during the student uprising in China, then
- disappeared after the massacre in Tiananmen Square. He evidently
- spoke from hiding in Hong Kong, where he is believed to have fled
- in mid-June through Macao. Thanks to an effective underground of
- sympathizers, only six of the 21 most-wanted student leaders have
- been apprehended. Wuer's friends say he may go to the U.S. to
- organize an alliance to continue the struggle.
-
- Wuer's message was an emotional call to arms to Chinese
- dissidents. "Those of us who remain alive, our lives are no longer
- our own . . . We have to be responsible in our struggle for
- democracy and for science. We have to be responsible to the
- martyrs." Wuer said there were many that night. "Simply put," he
- continued, "on June 4, the darkest day of the republic, China went
- sick." He said he saw "many comrades and compatriots" killed and
- beaten by "bestial, fascist troops" or "crushed to death and
- flattened out by tanks." In a separate statement, he likened the
- present rule in Beijing to "a black sun" that rose "on the day in
- June that should have belonged to a season of fresh flowers." He
- predicted that it would not last long: "Black sun, I'm going to
- shoot you down."