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June 4 vigil actually for quake: CCTV

Chinese state media covered the annual Hong Kong vigil to mark the Tiananmen Square massacre for the first time, but said the event was to mourn victims of the Sichuan earthquake, a report said yesterday.

State broadcaster CCTV made a short report on its Web site about the annual candlelit vigil, which saw thousands of people gather in Hong Kong to remember the victims of the June 4, 1989 crackdown in Beijing, the South China Morning Post said.

But the report, entitled “40,000 Hong Kong residents attending vigil to mourn killed compatriots in the earthquake,” made no mention of the primary reason for the vigil.

“The vigil lasted for about two hours. It included recitals, singing, a moment of silence and laying a wreath to martyrs,” the Internet report said without explaining who the “martyrs” were, the Post said.

“The vigil expressed the Hong Kong’s public’s mourning for their compatriots,” it said

It was the first time a Chinese media organization had reported on the event, which police said saw more than 15,000 gather in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, the only such commemoration on Chinese soil.

Although organizers did tie the event to last month’s devastating earthquake which has left nearly 90,000 dead or missing, holding a minute’s silence for the victims, it was far from the main purpose.
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