June 12 Anniversary Rally To Be Delayed By A Week

Organisers of planned rallies to commemorate last year's anti-government protests on June 12, said they will delay them by a week, to hold the events a day after the government's restrictions on public gatherings is to end.

The Hong Kong Civil Assembly Team is looking to mark the one-year anniversary of the June 12 protests around the government's headquarters – when the unrest stopped the legislature from debating a controversial extradition law, and saw police fire tear gas, rubber bullets and bean bag rounds to disperse the crowds.

The group said that on the evening of June 19, they are planning on holding a rally at Tamar Park, where the protests had reached a "bursting point".

A religious rally will be held in Edinburgh Place, and 12 districts have committed to holding street booths exhibiting photos from the months-long demonstrations.

The team's spokesman Ventus Lau said that even if the government extended the social gathering ban, they would move the date of the event to one day after the regulation lapses.

The authorities had insisted that the decision to extend the eight-person gathering limit until June 18 was not politically-motivated after critics questioned if the move was made with the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in mind.

Lau said that the government cannot keep banning public assemblies or rallies by continuously extending the social gathering rule.