Hong Kong police arrest 6 activists for holding vigil to honour Tiananmen Massacre victims

In a massive move to thwart public sentiments over the Tiananmen Square massacre, Hong Kong police on Saturday arrested six student activists who launched a commemorative vigil to mark the 33rd anniversary of the 1989 incident. Images and videos that surfaced on social media showed people in Hong Kong being led away by police after thousands descended to the streets with mobile phones and torch lights to replicate the annual candlelight vigil. This came after Hong Kong regional authorities warned against public gatherings, citing national security law (NSL, implemented in 2020).

According to a BBC report, those detained could face a prison sentence of up to five years. Hundreds of police and sniffer dogs patrolled the city's protest hub - Victoria Park - in one of the largest attempts by Beijing to snuff out political dissent in Hong Kong, experts cited by the BBC said. Among other measures, Beijing warned citizens against social media updates and censored hashtags like "Tiananmen Square" and "massacre."

(Hong Kong police lay a cordon to prevent 'unauthorised' assemblies in Victoria Park, Hong Kong. Image: AP)

Chinese across globe launch pro-democracy protests against Beijing

In past years, China has tried to completely erase public displays of June 4 on the mainland. However, until last year Hong Kong and Macau were two countries under Chinese rule that publicly remembered those who died in Tiananmen. China has asserted a near-total ban on vigils in Hong Kong since the implementation of the NSL.

(Protests held in honour of Tiananmen Square victims in Sydney, Australia. Image: AP)

Despite the overarching pressure, Beijing has failed to curtail public outrage against the massacre of 4 June 1989. Taiwan, on Saturday, openly commemorated the hundreds who died in the bloodied crackdown. Separately, the Chinese diaspora in Australia also organised pro-democracy protests outside the Chinese Consulate in Sydney. A social activist in Japan gathered in large numbers outside the Chinese embassy in Tokyo. The demonstrations were joined by migrant Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Mongolians, who raised slogans against the Xi Jinping-led Chinese Communist regime.

(Protests held in remembrance of Tiananmen Square victims in Tokyo, Japan. Image: AP)

In Bangladesh, a congregation of 500 activists of Swadhinata Sangram Parishad organised protest rallies demanding China take responsibility for  "mass killings" in 1989, ANI reported. They also demanded justice for the families of those killed in the "genocide."

Tiananmen Square massacre

The Tiananmen Square massacre is one of the darkest incidents in the history of human rights abuse. Also called the June 4 incident, it is a series of demonstrations that broke out in 1989 against systematic suppression by Beijing. The mass protests were a result of the growing resentment among youngsters and anti-government demonstrators who sought political and economic reforms in China. The students'-led movement called for more individual rights and freedoms, which triggered the hardliners of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The protests were catalysed by the death of Hu Yaobang, then General-Secretary of CCP who promoted democratic and liberal reforms.

On the day of his funeral on April 22, thousands descended on Tiananmen Square calling for immediate amelioration of existing social and political policies. Over 50 days, protests of varied sizes continued at the square. After several thwarted attempts, the CCP finally launched a heinous crackdown on the protestors. On June 3 and 4, 1989, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) raided the protest sites with tanks and armed troops with a motive to curtail further protests at any cost. According to US-based reports, the area was cleared by the morning after the troops carried out sporadic shootings. The event was labelled "massacre" shortly after.

While China claims some 200 people were killed in the incident, new UK-based reports say a "minimum" of 10,000 were slaughtered during indiscriminate firing on June 3 and 4 in 1989. The report declassified in 2017, over 28 years after the incident, revealed the gruesome details of the bloodshed by the PLA. However, even after three decades, Beijing has refused to debate its accountability for the crackdown.

(Image: AP)