The 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre is being marked with a vigil in Hong Kong, the only region in China allowed to commemorate the date. Around 150,000 people gathered in Victoria Park for the annual event, which was addressed by one of the 1989 student leaders, Xiong Yan.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders has documented the cases of sixty-five activists who have been subjected to harassment from officials in order to prevent them from organizing or taking part in activities commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre.  These individuals have been taken into police custody, had their movements restricted, been forced to leave their homes, or otherwise threatened or monitored by police. In addition to those documented, more are feared to have been subjected to similar forms of harassment, but may have chosen to keep quiet to avoid repercussions. Many of these individuals are signatories to Charter 08 and were participants in the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

Amnesty International say that as many as 200 people remain in detention for their involvement in the 1989 pro-democracy protests.

Today BBC corespondant Michael Bristow reports that he was denied access to the central area of Tiananmen square, which has been ringed by Chinese police to prevent people marking the 20th anniversary of the massacre.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Beijing to examine the “darker events of its past”.
In a statement realeased yesterday, Mrs Clinton said Beijing needed to “provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal”.

Authorities in China ordered nearly 160 websites closed for “system maintenance” to prevent netizens from mobilizing online and from learning about activities planned in many cities around the world to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre. Chinese internet users have been unable to connect to the social networking service Twitter, their Hotmail accounts and the photo-sharing service Flickr.

“Cutting off communication and preventing movement will not stop activists from fighting for their rights and will not stop people from marking the 20th anniversary of the crackdown,” said Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific Deputy Director at Amnesty International. “The quest for truth will only be fuelled by excessive harassment.”

Link to CHRD
Link to Tiananmen Mothers