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HONG KONG: Thousands gathered in Hong Kong on Wednesday for the city's annual candlelight vigil to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square anniversary, the only such commemoration on Chinese soil.
Organisers said they were hoping for at least 20,000 people to attend the vigil, held every year to mark the clampdown by Chinese troops on pro-democracy campaigners.
The terrible rain that has dogged Hong Kong in recent days held off for the protest, which included speeches from pro-democracy campaigners and group songs.
The number of attendees was well below that seen last year, despite the fact that organisers tried to tie the event to last month's devastating earthquake in southwest China, which has left nearly 90,000 dead or missing.
"We hope we can commemorate both the June 4 people and the people who died in the earthquake," one of the organisers, Andrew To, told local broadcaster RTHK.
A minute's silence was held for victims of the earthquake and all proceeds from the event would go to help the survivors of the May 12 disaster.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed in Beijing by troops sent in to end weeks of peaceful protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
China has never formally apologised for the incident and has said the military action was necessary to prevent a counter-revolutionary uprising. The bloody crackdown continues to be a taboo subject in the country.
Hong Kong, which operates a different economic and legal system from the mainland since being returned in 1997 by colonial power Britain, is the only place on Chinese soil where the incident is marked. - AFP/ac
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