Reuters :
Hong Kong closed off a park where tens of thousands gather annually to commemorate China’s 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and arrested the vigil’s organizer, in what activists see as suppression of one of the city’s main symbols of democratic hope.
Thousands of officers are expected to patrol the city’s streets on Friday to prevent gatherings of people lighting candles for the pro-democracy protesters killed by Chinese troops in Beijing 32 years ago.
The heightened vigilance from authorities was a marked departure from Hong Kong’s cherished freedoms of speech and assembly, bringing the global financial hub closer in line with mainland China’s strict controls on society, activists say.
“She only wanted to go to Victoria Park, light a candle and commemorate,” Chiu Yan Loy, executive member of the Alliance, told Reuters, adding he believed her arrest was meant to strike fear into those planning to attend the vigil.
