Police patrol Hong Kong park to enforce Tiananmen vigil ban

By ZEN SOO
Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — Heavy police force has patrolled Hong Kong’s Victoria Park after authorities for a third consecutive year banned public commemoration of the anniversary of the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Vigils overseas are the only place marking the event. For decades, Hong Kong and nearby Macao were the only places in China allowed to commemorate the violent suppression by army troops of student protesters demanding greater democracy in Beijing on June 4, 1989. Hundreds, if not thousands, were killed. The ban is seen as part of a move to snuff out political dissent and a sign that Hong Kong is losing its freedoms under Beijing. Vigils were held in Taiwan, Australia and elsewhere to remember the Tiananmen victims.