Soldier's story a new look at Tiananmen crackdown 士兵的故事（天安门）

Soldier's story a new look at Tiananmen crackdown 士兵的故事（天安门）

Associated Press Writer Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press Writer – Wed Mar 18, 11:47 am ET

Reuters – People's Liberation Army soldiers march on Tiananmen Square before the closing session of the National … TENGZHOU,

China – Even 20 years later, the shooting, chaos and death of the final assault on Tiananmen Square remain vivid in the mind of former soldier Zhang Shijun. Today, he has become one of the few to publicly voice regret.

In bearing witness about his role in the military crackdown on the 1989 student demonstrations in Beijing, Zhang says he hopes to add momentum to calls for an investigation and reassessment of the protest movement — and to further its ultimate goal of a democratic China.

"I feel like my spirit is stuck there on the night of June 3," Zhang, 40, said in an interview at his home in the dusty northern city of Tengzhou, referring to the date in 1989 on which the final assault began.

Zhang's tortured memories have gained a global audience among the Chinese dissident community in the weeks since he posted an open letter to president and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao online. In it, he relates some of what he saw when posted on the night of June 3-4, along with an account of the persecution he underwent after asking for an early discharge, and his belief that China must eventually clear its collective conscience of the tragic events.

"The responsibility can't just be laid on the military," Zhang said. "It's really the responsibility of all Chinese."

Zhang was just 18 when he joined the elite 54th Group Army's 162nd Motorized Infantry Division based in the central city of Anyang. Less than three years later, with student-led protests gathering pace, Zhang's units were ordered to Beijing on April 20, 1989. There, they camped on the capital's southwestern edge while citizens erected barricades to block their progress toward Tiananmen, the vast square in the heart of the city where the students had established their headquarters.

On June 3, their orders came: Drive through to the square and get it cleared.

Heading east toward the square, Zhang and his comrades abandoned their vehicles as bricks and rocks flew at their heads and bullets were fired at them by unknown shooters from upper stories of apartment buildings. Members of his unit fired over the heads of civilians as a warning, said Zhang, who added that he himself was serving as a medic and unarmed in the final assault.

Zhang said he knew of no deaths caused by the troops of the 54th army — a claim impossible to disprove as long as official files on the events remain closed. Most of the post-crackdown reports pinned the hundreds, possibly thousands of deaths among civilians and students on two other units, the 27th and 38th group armies based outside Beijing.

By daylight the next morning, Zhang said his unit established a cordon along the square's southern edge between a KFC restaurant and the mausoleum of communist China's founder, Mao Zedong.

Zhang said other details were still too sensitive to tell, suggesting atrocities such as the shooting in the back of unarmed students and civilians. While other eyewitnesses have made similar allegations, they remain impossible to independently confirm.

After their withdrawal, Zhang said he asked for and eventually obtained an early discharge, never having expected to be sent to fight ordinary citizens. After returning to Tengzhou he began a discussion group promoting market economics and politics, but was arrested on March 14, 1992 and sentenced to three years in a labor camp for political crimes. Then, as now, he regarded the charges as trumped-up retribution for his leaving his unit early.

After his release, Zhang said he traveled to find work, returning to Tengzhou in 2004 to deal in arts and antiques and help raise his 13-year-old daughter. In a dingy study adorned with his calligraphy and curio collection, he spends hours at the keyboard of his battered computer keeping in touch with other dissidents and surfing the Internet politics discussion boards.

Zhang, who retains the close-clipped haircut and restrained demeanor of a military man, said he came forward partly to seek redress for his jail camp term, but that revisiting the Tiananmen events remained his main focus.

"Back then, we felt that it would all be addressed in the near future. But ... democracy just seems further and further away," Zhang said between puffs on an endless string of "General" brand Chinese cigarettes.

Zhang said he hoped his example would inspire more ex-soldiers to come forward and form a network, but appeared reluctant to cast himself as an organizer, perhaps wary of the party's tendency to single out perceived opposition ringleaders for harsher punishment.

Already, his activities have aroused official attention. Visitors have been followed by police and Zhang said authorities who summoned him Wednesday, a day after the AP interviewed him, ordered him to shun the foreign media.

Retired professor Ding Zilin, an advocate for Tiananmen victims whose teenage son was killed in the crackdown, said Zhang is one of only a few soldiers to speak up about the 1989 events. Many who took part in the crackdown continue to hide their involvement, refusing to wear the commemorative watch issued to all martial law troops, she said.

"Twenty years have passed, but if the soldiers still had conscience, there may be others who stand up," Ding said.

Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said testimony from those who took part in the crackdown was invaluable to forming a full view of the events.

That Zhang was willing to come forward, Bequelin said, simply reinforced the conviction among many that "in the long run, a reassessment of those events is inevitable."
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前解放军：为天安门镇压仍怀强烈罪恶感

【大纪元3月18日报导】（中央社记者张芳明东京18日专电）

1名曾参加1989年镇压天安门民主运动的前中国士兵本月写信给中国国家主席胡锦涛，要求中国实现民主化，他接受日本媒体访问时表示，迄今仍对参加这项行动怀有强烈的罪恶感。

“东京新闻”今天发自山东省滕州市的报导访问了38 岁的前中国解放军士兵张世军，张世军参加20年前那个震惊全世界的血腥镇压行动后，由于罪恶感而申请退伍，结果遭到军方开除军籍，后来由于参加有关孙中山先生的研究会，而于1992年遭逮捕且未经审判坐监3年。

张世军在滕州市的家里接受访问时指出，当年他18岁，在驻扎河南省的第54军担任公关工作，1989年4月下旬，部队奉命前往北京，目的是维护首都治安，当初并无武力镇压的命令，部队也未配备实弹。

张世军指出，6月3日晚上，部队接获命令前往天安门广场南边进行武力镇压，另有军机低空飞行投下弹药，部队在前往广场途中曾遭到市民数度抵抗。

报导引述张世军的话指出，他的脸遭石头打中流血，部队只向上空射击警告，并未对民众开枪，但在4日清晨到达天安门广场之前，目睹很多死伤者，他说，“看到头上绑着白布的学生倒在血中，令我心碎”。

报导根据有关天安门事件的证言和研究指出，当时在天安门广场南边的部队未进行水平射击，位于广场西边的第38军等部队则向示威运动群众进行水平射击。中共当局公布的牺牲者是319名，但外界认为实际的数目更多。

张世军出狱后向党中央要求恢复名誉但未获得回应，本月6日他在网路公开写给胡锦涛的信函，要求共产党实现民主化，给予报导自由和实施普选，以作为天安门事件这个悲剧的补偿。

张世军有个13岁的女儿，发表公开信虽让他有遭到有关当局逮捕的危险，但他表示，如果他的流血能使孩子这一代获得自由，他不在乎危险。
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张世军被捕

民生观察获悉，前六四戒严部队军人张世军于昨天（2009年3月19日）深夜二点左右被从家中抓走，当时只有张世军和十多岁的女儿在家。张世军的家人现对此感到很紧张，但还是向我们证实了上述消息。据了解，昨晚山东腾州防爆大队来了很多警察对张世军实施了抓捕。

妙觉师傅也告诉我们，她昨晚深夜曾接到张世军的电话，但由于太晚，她没接电话，今天给张家打去电话时，证实张世军已被抓捕。

在六四事件20周年前夕，当年随中国军队戒严部队进驻北京的张世军，日前在互联网发表致中国国家主席胡锦涛的公开信，要求为个人被无端开除平反的时候，他也谴责屠城暴行。张世军在公开信中表示，他于1992年7月22日，被当局以刑法上所没有的罪名“反党反社会主义罪”，劳教三年。近期，张世军接受了法新社、美联社、自由亚洲电台等多家国际媒体的采访，

张世军现住山东滕州市，参军时只有18岁，隶属解放军54军162师，当时部队驻扎在河南，他是一名宣传干事。但是在北京他亲眼目睹了起始于89年6月3日傍晚的这场中华民族的悲剧。事件发生后，他提出要求提前退伍，却遭到所在的部队以“资产阶级自由化”、“拒不执行戒严任务”等理由将其除名。

张世军在公开信中表示，1992年3月，他在滕州礼堂电影院被便衣秘密逮捕，随后滕州市公安局在他的住所搜缴了他的所有文字数据，包括戒严笔记。7月22日，被当局以刑法上所没有的罪名“反党反社会主义罪”，劳教三年。

张世军在公开信中追问中国领导人，国民党在蒋经国时代已经兑现了她的政治诺言，开放了报禁、党禁，实现了普选。共产党在什么时候兑现她曾经许下的远比国民党漂亮的诺言，有没有时间表？张世军还在公开信及接受媒体采访时表示，“我看到过很恐怖的画面，到目前为止，我没有见到任何人揭露过这个（屠城）真相”。

对于张世军先生遭抓捕，民生观察在此呼吁海内外各界对此予以高度关注，民生观察要求山东当局尽快释放张世军先生，我们将继续关注这一案件的进展。