HK Tiananmen vigil banned, organiser held
(4 Jun 2021) A member of the committee that organises Hong Kong's annual candlelight vigil for the victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown was arrested early on Friday on the 32nd anniversary, local media reported. Public broadcaster RTHK and others reported Chow Hang Tung, the Vice Chair of The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, was arrested by police early Friday. It is not clear why Chow was arrested, and police have yet to comment on the matter. The committee organises the vigil and ran a museum dedicated to the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. The vigil has been cancelled by city authorities for a second year and the museum was closed this week. Chow, who is a lawyer, had spoken to the Associated Press just days before her arrest and explained why it was so important for Hong Kong to preserve the memory of the Tiananmen Square events. "It's very important for the Tiananmen victims, because people have been fighting for justice for them for all these years," she said. "It's also one of the longest-lasting mass assemblies in the world and it's a reflection of what, who we are as Hong Kong people, we are people who are so insistent on justice, who have this endurance in acting for justice." Her group, which is called the "Hong Kong Alliance" for short, has organised candlelight vigils on a large scale over three decades, drawing crowds of tens, and sometimes, hundreds of thousands. On Thursday, Hong Kong police issued a statement which said "considering public safety, public order, people's rights and freedom, and the serious health risks brought by the ongoing pandemic to the society, police have reasonable grounds to believe that the holding of the event will pose considerable threats to the public health and lives and issued a notice of prohibition to the organiser." Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
