London-Tokyo-Milan-Dhaka witness protests on Tiananmen massacre anniversary

A coalition of human rights groups organised a Vigil outside the Chinese Embassy, London on Friday to mark the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy movement and Tiananmen Square Massacre.

The organizations which extended their full support were “Remember June Fourth”, Chinese Solidarity Campaign, Democracy for Hong Kong, The World Uyghur Congress, Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities, Labour Movement Solidarity for Hong Kong, Uyghur Solidarity Campaign UK, Tibetan Community in Britain. Prominent leaders from these organisations addressed the gathering.

Tsering Passang of the Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities (GATPM), a co-organiser of this year’s protest outside the Chinese Embassy, said, “We are joining with like-minded groups to commemorate this poignant anniversary to show our support and solidarity with the mothers and families who lost their near and dear ones during the Tiananmen Square Massacre. We condemn the Chinese military for crushing down peaceful student protests. The Chinese regime and its leaders are directly responsible for killing several thousand students and several more thousands wounded on June 4th for simply engaging in peaceful protests.” Tsering further added, “The ongoing illegal occupation of Tibet, East Turkistan as well as brutal crackdown of protests in Hong Kong is a fresh reminder of Chinese regime’s wrongdoings in the present day. This must be stopped.”

Protestors in Bangladesh gathered outside a mosque in Dhaka to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. The demonstrators held candlelight vigils and shouted slogans outside Dhaka’s Baitul Mukarram Mosque. One of the banners used during the candlelight visit read “Genocide Day”.

In Tokyo protests were held despite heavy rains and in Milan protests were held before the Chinese consulate.

This year marks the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy movement and the June Fourth massacre. The largest June Fourth commemoration vigil used to take place in Hong Kong. However, since 2020 the Hong Kong government has used the pretext of the pandemic to crack down on public commemoration of the events. There are concerns that future commemorations may be banned. Hong Kong police detained a democracy leader on Friday morning as authorities sought to prevent any public commemoration of the anniversary of Beijing’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown.