Tension, tight security mark sensitive day

Staff reporter

At least three people were taken away by police officers who were on high alert in Causeway Bay, where the annual candlelight vigil to commemorate victims of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square incident used to take place.

Officers surrounded Alexandra Wong Fung-yiu, a pro-democracy activist also known as Grandma Wong, and took her away at around 3pm after she yelled "Vindicate June 4, the people will never forget" near the Causeway Bay MTR Station.

At around the same time, another senior citizen held a cardboard sign with June 4-related slogans on it outside department store Sogo, lamenting that there used to be "a sea of candlelight back in the years, but now there was no one and no candles."

Dozens of officers immediately surrounded the citizen and cordoned off the area with orange tape while ordering the elderly to put away the cardboard sign. The elderly complied with officers' order and was then taken away to a police vehicle.

A young man, who wore a black T-shirt with Cuban Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara's face on it, was subdued inside Victoria Park by security personnel, and other workers of the fair opened up umbrellas to block cameras.

Officers later searched the man and took him away in a police vehicle.

Police again stepped up security as night fell, with their armored vehicle "Sabertooth" going on high-profile patrols in the vicinity. A tourist was frightened by the tense atmosphere, saying: "It is so scary, why are there so many cameras and police officers?"

Meanwhile, the annual June 4 mass was canceled for the third consecutive year by the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. In response to inquiries, the Hong Kong Catholic Social Communications Office said it has already prayed for Chinese churches and China on May 24 during the Feast of Mary Help of Christians.

This marks the first June 4 after Article 23 was passed and took effect on March 23.

Speaking before the Executive Council meeting, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu sidestepped questions on whether "June 4" has become a taboo. He only said all public events must abide by the law. "National security risks are proven to genuinely exist as shown in the 35+ subversion trial. Hong Kong must still stay on alert and should not forget the pain after the wound is healed," Lee said.

In Beijing, an official notice said Tiananmen Square - as well as Chang'an Avenue, the road lining the square - were closed for the whole day yesterday, while guards have also been stationed on pedestrian bridges.

Elsewhere in Taipei, Taiwan's new leader Lai Ching-te said the memory of the June 4 incident "will not disappear in the torrent of history."