HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people held a candlelit vigil in a rain-soaked Hong Kong park on Tuesday to urge China to respect human rights on the 24th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
In China, most mention of the anniversary was censored from the Internet. Security was tight in Beijing, where on June 3 and June 4 1989, China's leaders ordered troops to open fire on demonstrators and sent in tanks to crush a student-led campaign movement, killing hundreds.
In Hong Kong, members of the crowd wore black and held candles under umbrellas. Protesters demanded Beijing overturn its denunciation of the pro-democracy movement as a "counter-revolutionary event".
"Vindicate June 4th!" many shouted. "Never give up!"
Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, is the only place on Chinese soil where large, open commemorations of the Tiananmen massacre take place. The vigil is held up as a symbol of Hong Kong's relative freedoms and civil liberties compared with mainland China.
"I feel very sad. It's been 24 years and nothing has changed. The changes that the students of 1989 demanded have not come yet. Instead, things are getting worse and worse. You can see the officials are still very corrupt," said Doris Poon, a clerk in her late 40s.
Organizers estimated 150,000 people showed up to send a "united message" to China's new president, Xi Jinping, whose government has clamped down on Internet freedoms and detained anti-corruption activists. Police put the figure at 54,000 at the peak of the assembly.
A record 180,000 people attended last year's vigil.
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