Greve de fome para recordar Tiananmen

Students go hungry to remember June 4

Eva Wu
South China Morning Post
June 02, 2009

A small group of Hong Kong students yesterday began a hunger strike in support of the vindication of the 1989 protesters in Tiananmen Square.

Representatives of the Hong Kong Federation of Students began their protest in Times Square, Causeway Bay, at 4pm and expect to complete it at about 9am on Thursday.

Xiong Yan , who was one of the 21 most wanted student leaders in Tiananmen two decades ago, and the sons of Jens Galschiot, the Danish sculptor-activist who was denied entry to Hong Kong on Saturday, will appear in Times Square today to show their support for the students.

Galschiot had intended to join events to mark the 20th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown and repair his Pillar of Shame sculpture at the University of Hong Kong campus.

Students gathered outside the busy shopping mall clad in black T-shirts bearing the slogan "Freedom now" and wearing white headbands that read "Hunger strike, HKFS".

Federation secretary general Crystal Chow Ching said the strike was a continuation of the 1989 Beijing students' movement.

"Those demands raised against the government in 1989 have never been realised ... and democratic development has been delayed," Ms Chow said. "There are comments this year distorting the truth of June 4. We hope the HKFS's action can raise concern among young people and encourage them to dig out the truth."

Young people should remain critical about recent social developments on the mainland, Ms Chow said. Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Wing-tat appeared outside the shopping mall to back the students. "They did very well and I support them," he said.

The Hong Kong University Students' Union condemned the Hong Kong government for its "arbitrary and irrational decision" to bar Galschiot. Political censorship and blacklisting would undermine the city's autonomy and the "one country two systems" principle, it said.