Hong Kong
TENS of thousands of Hong Kong residents yesterday staged the first major protest on Chinese soil against the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy students around Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Braving heavy rain, people from all walks of life gathered to sing songs and lay wreaths in memory of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of students and pro-democracy supporters who were killed when Chinese troops and tanks rolled into Tiananmen on June 4, 1989.
Organisers said 40,000 people turned up in central Victoria Park for the candlelight vigil. It was the first large demonstration on Chinese soil against the Tiananmen killings since Britain returned Hong Kong to China last July, ending 156 years of colonial rule, but the territory has functioned with little change under a ''one country, two systems'' policy.
''I am very moved by the concern of Hong Kong people for democracy in China. I'm sure Hong Kong will be the bedrock of the democracy movement in China,'' Wang Dan, a Tiananmen leader, told the crowd via a telephone link from the United States.
Wang, a prominent Chinese dissident, was freed from jail by Beijing in April and now lives in exile in America.
In Beijing, police pounced on a wheelchair-bound petitioner in the square yesterday and dragged him away screaming. Wang Zhongyi, a farmer from south-eastern Fujian province, used the sensitive anniversary to draw attention to his allegations of abuse of power by officials in a personal injury case that left him crippled.
Police pounced on him and his brother, who had scattered leaflets about the case near the Monument to the Revolutionary Martyrs, and pushed him out of the square while he screamed and wailed.
Bereaved families marked the anniversary by mourning victims. Most flocked to cemeteries to sweep tombs, place flowers, offer sacrificial food and burn incense.
The anniversary had an added poignancy this year ahead of a visit to China this month by President Bill Clinton, the first by an American president since the bloodbath. Plans for Clinton to be formally welcomed in the square have drawn protests in Washington. - Reuters
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