The UN is concerned by reports of the detention of a number of people in Hong Kong over commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote about this on Twitter. Hong Kong police previously said they detained 23 people on Sunday for “disturbing public order”.
“We immediately call for the immediate release of all those detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” said the high commissioner’s office, also calling for international commitments to be respected.
Hong Kong has allowed religious events in the past, but in recent years the local government has banned them. China’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Hong Kong was now moving from “chaos to stability and prosperity”.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Currently, Hong Kong is governed based on the principle of one country, two systems, which is expected to guarantee the establishment of democracy and the right to autonomy. But Beijing is increasingly restricting this freedom.
The Chinese army sent in tanks on the evening of June 4, 1989, against demonstrators who had been protesting in downtown Beijing for several weeks demanding democratic reforms. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of students and other residents died. In mainland China, these events are a taboo topic to discuss, as well as to mention. (ČTK)
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