Asia-Pacific News
Thousands attend Tiananmen vigil in Hong Kong (Roundup)
Jun 4, 2008, 17:38 GMT
Thousands of people gather to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre in Victoria Park Hong Kong, China, 04 June 2008. The event brings together human rights activists of many groups as well as those concerned about the needy on the mainland such as the victims of the 12 May Sichuan massacre. Hong Kong is the only part of China where such open expression of political and social concern is permitted. EPA/ADRIAN BRADSHAW
Hong Kong - Around 48,000 people attended a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong Wednesday to mark the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, organizers claimed.
However, in a numbers game as traditional as the vigil itself, police claimed only around 16,000 people went to Victoria Park for the only public memorial on Chinese soil of the 1989 killings.
Organizers said their estimate of around 48,000 people joined the annual vigil, basing their estimate on the number of candles handed out as people arrived.
Independent observers put the figure at between 20,000 and 30,000, lower than last year's turnout but higher than many people expected in the year China hosts the Olympics.
The event included a one-minute silence for victims of last month's Sichuan earthquake, another event that commentators expected might dull people's appetite for anti-China protests.
The theme for Wednesday's event mimicked the slogan for the forthcoming Beijing Olympics 'One World, One Dream' with the message: 'One world - universal human rights. One dream - rectify the June 4 verdict.'
Under drizzly skies, the huge crowd including many families and children thousands held aloft candles in a peaceful and poignant memorial that annually confounds predictions of low turnouts.
Up to 70,000 people have attended the vigil in previous years and turnouts have always been in the tens of thousands by organizers estimates.
People in Hong Kong were horrified by the events of June 4, 1989, when troops killed hundreds and possibly thousands of student protestors in the heart of the Chinese capital.
The massacre had particular poignancy for people in the city of 6.9 million, then still a British colony but only eight years away from reverting to Chinese rule in 1997.
Although Hong Kong is now part of China, the annual Tiananmen memorial is allowed because of Hong Kong's status as a special administrative region where citizens have freedom of speech.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
@andy: They did? Why? Becoz they raped your mom and made you?
The Chinese people are wonderful but they live in the MATRIX, a make believe world create by the chinese politburo that invents things like 'unauthorized reincarnations'. Its citizens are being given the opium of propaganda because it keeps the politicians very very wealthy. why are the tibetan's protesting? because you are building brothels on holy land! Why don't you allow concubines in the forbidden city and turn beijing in to amsterdam and tibetans will have nothing more to say. Why don't you let Tibet be autonomous like Hong Kong? And what about the earthquake? Yes it was a tragedy, but so much death could have been avoided if builders did not get away with making cheap buildings that put profit above safety. and what China is doing in Africa is just so wrong. Let slaughter of innocents happen by looking away for mining concessions? yea America did that too but why cannot China set a better example? wouldn't that be more glorious?
China has its right to explore ways of developement.Of course, there are problems , but aren't there problems in every country? So that's right for us to expect China to behave better than anyother country. Neverthless about this, we should be more patient if we really care about it.
----'why are the tibetan's protesting? because you are building brothels on holy land! Why don't you allow concubines in the forbidden city and turn beijing in to amsterdam and tibetans will have nothing more to say.'
That's the most rediculous thing i've ever heard. I'm afraid you're really brainwashed by what you have read. I can tell you, the govenment never allow such things to happen neither in its policies nor in its practical behaviors. In fact, what you said sometimes can be heard happened underground which is illegal. And the government is always trying to get rid of it. At least I can't one brothel in the street.
To Andy:
The students where protesting for DEMOCRACY!!! Not only that, but they where doing it peacefuly. Now Andy, I have two questions for you. What is your real name, and how much is the Chinese Government paying you to do this???
They were doing it peacefully?
I doubt it! I've seen pictures in which people took the machine guns from the soliders while the soldiers didn't fire at them. I've also seen solders burnt to death which was obvious made by the so-called 'peacefull 'people. I think the movement was getting out of controll at that time.
why you so hate we chinese? why??????please tell me!!!
you said our government had killed or burt the 'PEACEFUL PEOPLE'?please give me your Evidence!!!!can you?no!youcan't!!!but i can tell you a truth;
no the mobs were hurt ,but my father, a salesman,was killed by the 'peaceful people' and my mother's clinic was burn off!!!!
I hate the killer!!
please be fair!
to Dan the conqueror: they are mobs!!!!!!!! you said they did it peacefully.ok! I give you a Website.please see it with your own eyes. these were all did by the \'PEACELOVING MAN\'. in the end,I give you my E-mail Address to you.my e address : 1st,771209789@qq.com 2nd,jamesdonggua@163.com Çë×÷³öÄãÃÇËùνµÄ ¹«ÕýµÄ²Ã¾ö(FAIRLY Ruling)
nbzq.com.cn/bbs/printpage.asp?BoardID=8&ID=6619
page: 1
andyJun 4th, 2008 - 20:52:17
chinese government did the right thing
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