Calls for accountability over lethal Hong Kong fire silenced
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Hong Kong, China (AFP) — 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,” Kwan, a 24-year-old student told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday, while handing out flyers that called for an independent probe into the deadly blaze.
“We need to be frank about how today’s Hong Kong is riddled with holes, inside and out.”
The death toll in the fire that tore through a Hong Kong residential estate this week has risen to 146, a police representative said at a Sunday news conference.
“As of 4 p.m., the latest death toll stands at 146. We cannot rule out the possibility of further fatalities,” said police representative Tsang Shuk-yin.
Kwan and other organizers’ demands turned into an online petition that gained more than 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 under Beijing’s watchful eye, dissenting voices in Hong Kong can vanish as quickly as they appear.
Police declined to confirm the arrest, saying only that they “will take actions according to actual circumstances and in accordance with the law.”
AFP’s attempts to reach Kwan by phone on Sunday morning went unanswered.
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 Chinese 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 AFP he was only “proposing very basic demands.”
“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.”
