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Tiananmen exile
appeals to China
Sunday, 11 January, 2004 BBC
 An
exiled leader of the 1989 student protests on
Beijing's Tiananmen Square has urged China to allow
himself and others to return to their homeland.
Wuer Kaixi spoke on arrival in Hong Kong from Taiwan
after receiving permission from the region to attend
the funeral of local diva Anita Mui.
"After 15 years in exile... I say to Beijing, I say to
[President] Hu Jintao, let us go home!" he said.
Mr Wuer also commended Hong Kong for letting him enter
Chinese territory.
He said he saw a "clear distinction " between the
authorities in Hong Kong and the Chinese Government.
"I come to salute the Hong Kong Democrats and people
who stand by them," the former pro-democracy leader
said.
Mr Wuer fled to the United States after the Tiananmen
Square protests during which he was one of the student
leaders who took part in talks with former Chinese
Premier Li Peng before the protests were suppressed by
the army.
The death toll of 4 June 1989, when tanks entered the
square, remains unknown but is thought to be in the
hundreds, if not thousands.
Anita Mui, a much-loved singer who met Mr Wuer when
she backed the student movement in China, died of
cancer at the age of 40 on 30 December and is due to
be buried on Monday.
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