HONG KONG (AP) Police arrested an organizer of Hong Kong s annual candlelight vigil remembering the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown and warned people not to attend the banned event Friday as authorities mute Chinas last pro-democracy voices.

In past years, tens of thousands of people gathered in Hong Kongs Victoria Park to honor those who died when Chinas military put down student-led pro-democracy protests on June 4, 1989. Hundreds, if not thousands were killed.

Chinas ruling Communist Party has never allowed public events marking the militarys attack on protesters and citizens, and security was increased in the Beijing square Friday morning, with police checking pedestrians IDs and tour buses shuttling Chinese tourists as on any other day.

Authorities have squelched all discussion of the events on the mainland, where the few remaining activists and victims advocates are put under increased police monitoring and taken away on involuntary vacations around the anniversary.

Chinese officials claim that the countrys rapid economic development in the years since what they call the political turmoil of 1989 proves that decisions made at the time had been correct.

Along with the deaths of protesters and ordinary citizens, the events of 1989 caused considerable turmoil within the party, with the reformist general secretary, Zhao Ziyang, removed from office and placed under house arrest until his death in 2005.