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HKU students begin voting on their union's June 4 policy

University of Hong Kong students began voting yesterday on a motion calling on the central government to 'vindicate the 1989 democratic movement and be held accountable for the June 4 massacre'.

The three-day poll, being held in the 20th anniversary year of the Tiananmen Square crackdown - and amid heated debate among students over the use of the word 'massacre' - could determine the students' union's policy on the incident.

The motion demands that the Beijing government deliver a public apology and offer compensation to the families of those who were killed. It also calls on Beijing to release all dissidents still detained due to their involvement in the massive protests that led to the crackdown.

Polling stations were set up on the school campus yesterday for the vote, which will end tomorrow.

An exchange student from the mainland, giving his name as Yao, voted against the motion yesterday, saying its stance was wrong. 'The word massacre is totally wrong in the motion,' said Mr Yao, who figured in a debate at a June 4 forum at the university last week.

An engineering student who did not give his name said he was rethinking his stance on the crackdown after controversy over remarks by union president Ayo Chan Yi-ngok, which could leave Mr Chan facing a vote of no confidence.

'I learned about June 4 in the past but I was neither for nor against the incident. I am paying more attention to the incident after the president's remarks,' the student said.

Mr Chan, 20, has come under intense pressure to step down since telling last week's forum that military suppression could have been avoided had the students dispersed peacefully from the square.

Postgraduate student Christina Chan Hau-man yesterday began her campaign to collect 350 signatures to initiate another poll that might oust Mr Chan. Under the union's constitution, a poll will be held if 3 per cent of members sign a request for one. An office bearer of the union will be asked to resign if a vote of no confidence against him or her, in which at least 10 per cent of members cast ballots, is passed. The union has about 10,000 members.

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