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Hundreds join Hong Kong Tiananmen democracy march
Agence France Presse - May 29, 2011
The march, joined by politicians, students and unionists, came ahead of an annual candlelight vigil in Hong Kong on Saturday to mark the June 4 crushing of pro-democracy protests which is expected to draw thousands of people.
The protesters, mostly clad in black and white as a sign of mourning, carried banners and placards on their three-hour march to the government offices, watched by police.
Carrying a white three-metre (10-foot) tall "Goddess of Democracy" statue – a replica of one built by students in Tiananmen Square in 1989 – and a black makeshift coffin, they chanted slogans including "Justice for June 4" and "Return power to the people".
"The truth of June 4 should be respected, the movement of June 4 should be vindicated," said Albert Ho, secretary general of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which led the march.
"Those who are responsible should be brought to justice," Ho, who is also a prominent lawmaker, told AFP as he called on China to end its "one-party dictatorship".
Hundreds, if not thousands, of people were killed in central Beijing on the night of June 3-4, 1989, when the military violently crushed six weeks of student-led democracy protests on Tiananmen Square.
Chinese authorities keep a tight lid on details about the Tiananmen protests, which remain a taboo subject on the mainland, but Hong Kong activists frequently cite the crackdown in their criticism of Beijing.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 but maintains semi-autonomous status from China and enjoys civil liberties not seen on the mainland.
The Tiananmen vigil organisers expect a bigger turnout this year, due to anger over recent arrests of activists in Beijing, including prominent artist Ai Weiwei, and the jailing of dissident Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo.
On Saturday, activists erected a "Goddess of Democracy" statue in a busy shopping district in Hong Kong.
Last year two similar statues were seized by the police and 13 activists arrested. One of the 13 was later charged under public entertainment laws for failing to get approval to display the statue.
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