Laura Mannering and Aaron Tam
The Asian Age
June 5, 2015
People raise candles as they attend a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong. (Photo: AP)
A park in central Hong Kong turned into a sea of candles Thursday as tens of thousands gathered to mark the 26th anniversary of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown, with the city deeply divided ahead of a vote on how to choose its next leader.
Six football pitches in Victoria Park were filled with sombre crowds who held candles aloft as they paid silent tribute to the dead.
Students later took to the stage and burned a copy of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, or Basic Law, saying it “restricted democracy”.
Hong Kong is the only location on Chinese soil to see a major commemoration of the military’s brutal crushing of pro-democracy protests in central Beijing in 1989.
Hundreds — by some estimates more than a thousand — died after the Communist Party sent tanks to crush demonstrations at the square in the heart of Beijing, where student-led protesters had staged a peaceful seven-week sit-in to demand democratic reforms.
“Tens of thousands have gathered every year to mourn your sacrifice… Hoping your day of justice will come,” said Mak Hoi-wah of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organises the vigil.
“We will continue to demand an independent investigation into the truth.”
The wife of one student who died during the Tiananmen crackdown wept as she thanked Hong Kongers for coming to the park every year.
Organisers said that 135,000 had attended.
The US called for “an official accounting of the victims” of the 1989 crackdown Thursday, as well as the release from prison of those serving Tiananmen-related sentences.
The state department also urged a halt to the harassment and detention of those who want to commemorate the anniversary.
