Shared loss: Philippine nationals taking part in a community prayer service;
Not long before he was reportedly detained, Miles Kwan approached commuters outside a Hong Kong train station, urging them to demand accountability for the deadly inferno that tore through nearby apartment blocks.
“We all feel unhappy that (Hong Kong) has come to this and we want things to improve,” the 24-year-old student said on Friday, while handing out flyers that called for an independent probe into the blaze, which killed at least 146 people last week.
“We need to be frank about how today’s Hong Kong is riddled with holes, inside and out.”
Kwan and other organisers’ demands turned into an online petition that gained over 10,000 signatures in less than a day.
But local media reported on Saturday night that Kwan was arrested on suspicion of sedition by national security police and the text of the online petition had been deleted, showing how dissenting voices in Hong Kong can vanish as quickly as they appear.
People holding flowers and lining up near the site of the blaze.
Police declined to confirm the arrest, saying only that they “will take actions according to actual circumstances and in accordance with the law”.
Hong Kong was once home to spirited political activism, but that has faded since Beijing imposed a strict national security law in 2020 following huge pro-democracy protests in the finance hub.
Kwan was reportedly detained not long after Beijing’s national security arm in Hong Kong publicly condemned “anti-China forces” for exploiting the disaster and “inciting social division and stirring hatred against authorities”.
Asked on Friday if he feared being arrested, Kwan told reporters he was only “proposing very basic demands”.
Toys and condolence notes left on a utility pole at a makeshift memorial for victims of the deadly fire in Hong Kong’s Central district. — AFP/AP
“If these ideas are deemed seditious or ‘crossing the line’, then I feel I can’t predict the consequences of anything anymore, and I can only do what I truly believe.”
Kwan and a handful of activists gave out flyers at the train station near the charred residential estate on Friday, demanding government accountability, an independent probe into possible corruption, proper resettlement for residents and a review of construction oversight.
The demands reflected a belief that the fire was “not an accident” but a man-made disaster, he said. — AFP
