CHINA IN TURMOIL : Australia’s Hawke Bursts Into Tears Over Stories of Killings

Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke burst into tears during a memorial service Friday as he described the brutal shooting of civilians in China by the military.

“I call on the Chinese government to withdraw its troops from deployment against unarmed civilians and to respect the will of its people,” Hawke told 1,000 people at the service in the Great Hall of the federal Parliament.

“To crush the spirit and body of youth is to crush the very future of China itself.”

Hawke read eyewitness reports of the killings, saying tanks “ran backwards and forwards over the bodies of the slain until they were reduced to pulp.”

“We watched in horror the unyielding forces of repression brutally killing the vision of youth,” Hawke tearfully told his audience, his voice breaking with emotion.

Chinese student Jin Zhefei, thanking Hawke for his speech, also broke down in tears and the prime minister helped her from the platform.

Hawke has cried openly several times in public, once during debate in Parliament on Israel and earlier this year when talking on television about his love for his wife.

The memorial service was one of eight held Friday in major cities around Australia.