On June 1, the Hong Kong Alliance held a march in memory of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. About 1,000 people dressed in black participated in the silent rally.
Different from the marches in the past, the march on Sunday also included themes related to the Beijing Olympics and mourning the victims of the Sichuan earthquake.
Alliance Chairman Szeto Wah said, "Although an earthquake is a natural disaster, there are also man-made calamities, such as 'Tofu waste school buildings', this is the same as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, both brought people endless suffering."
Manmade Calamities
In the march, the organizer played democracy songs instead of shouting slogans as in the past, to express their grief for compatriots who died in the earthquake and their anger toward man-made calamities.
Mr. Ching Cheong, the Chief China Correspondent for The Straits Times, also participated in the march. Ching was unexpectedly arrested on his trip to mainland China in April 2005 and later charged with spying for China's rival, Taiwan and sentenced to five years in prison. He is currently released and on parole.
Ching said he supported the march because it is good for China. "If there are unhappy people because of this event, I can do nothing to help them. I have a clear conscience. I'm determined to do something for China's progress, for the Chinese people to enjoy more democracy, freedom, rule of law, and dignity. That's all." said Ching.
Li Tie operates the mainland rights website, "Common people help common people." He specially came to join the activity from Mainland China. When interviewed, Li choked with emotion, "The support from financial donations is limited after all. It's quite, quite limited. If we can promote democracy in China, it can help people in China greatly."
We Cannot Accept the Bloody Olympics
Hong Kong citizen Mr. Mai told an Epoch Times reporter that he has joined various activities to memorialize the 1989 movement for 19 years. He said that he is not happy that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has not carried out its promise of improving China's human rights made when it applied to hold the Olympics. "The Beijing Olympics being held by the CCP is a bloody Olympics. We can't accept it. We want a human rights torch."
Liu Jiayi, the spokeswoman for the "Tiananmen Mothers," said that the CCP authorities must mourn the victims of the 1989 movement. "If the Sichuan earthquake is a national mourning, then the Tiananmen Square Massacre that happened 19 years ago is one too. I think that whenever an issue is not redressed, and whenever it is erased from history, it is worthy of being mentioned at any time." said Liu.
Donations to the Red Cross
The organizer also set up a donation box following the march. The Alliance said that all money will be handed over to the Red Cross to aid the victims in Sichuan. Szeto Wah linked the massacre 19 years ago with the current earthquake, saying, "There is a man-made calamity in this natural disaster."
"We saw in the news, those parents holding their children's photo in the rubble, they display a banner 'Natural disasters are unavoidable, But man-made disasters are hateful.' The Tofu waste school building that killed many students is a man-made disaster." said Wah.
"The Tiananmen Square Massacre is also a man-made disaster. The movement was against corrupt officials and appealed for democracy. Now the corruption is even more serious. Both bring endless suffering to people." Wah continued.
Burned a Model Tofu-Waste School
The march arrived at the Hong Kong government headquarters two hours later. Thereafter, Hong Kong lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung led a group carrying a coffin to the Office of The Commissioner of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The People's Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. They burned a model of a Tofu waste school building before they left.
Tofu waste school buildings were build from the waste products of Tofu food processing, not of concrete and other typical building materials. As a result, these school buildings readily collapsed during the earthquake.
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