Roundup: HK government steps up security at heroes' tomb

Hong Kong government will take a number of measures to enhance security at Gallant Garden after 29 tombstones were vandalized over the weekend, a government official said Monday.

The official, Annette Lee, deputy director of Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), said these measures include setting up a security guard post at the Garden and increasing manpower to 10 from eight to conduct patrols, including night patrols.

The department will also construct fences and gates around the Garden, which will be closed at night, and discuss with the Police and the Architectural Services Department appropriate locations for installing closed-circuit television, Lee said.

To show the government's greatest respect to those decreased civil servants, the Civil Service Bureau, together with the FEHD and the Hospital Authority, will assist the families in having the gravestones repaired. "All costs will be borne by the government and the Hospital Authority," Lee said.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang on Monday also condemned vandals who desecrated tombstones in Gallant Garden as shameless, evil and psychologically unstable.

Speaking to the press after attending church Monday morning, Tsang said those buried in Gallant Garden are martyrs who had sacrificed their lives for Hong Kong and such an act has hurt the feelings of Hong Kong people. He promised the tombstones will be fixed as soon as possible.

Twenty-nine tombstones at Gallant Garden were found vandalized with holes punched into photos of the deceased Saturday morning. Police believed the vandalism was carried out on Friday night or Saturday morning. It was being treated as criminal damage and was under investigation by Tai Po District Crime Squad.

Gallant Garden, a 1,600-square-foot area inside Wo Hop Shek Public Cemetery near Fan Ling, was set aside in 1996 as the final resting place for civil servants who die in the line of duty. In 2000, it was extended to no-civil servants who died with exceptional bravery while on duty. Among those buried in the garden are police and firemen killed while on duty and health-care workers who died while treating patients during the SARS outbreak in 2003.

So far the Police has no idea of suspects and the motive behind the crime. A police officer at Tai Po District Crime Squad said Monday initial investigations have ruled out the possibility that the photos were punched by the items found at the scene, including a nail, a beer can and an umbrella. They were probably hammered with heavy iron bulb because there was rust remainder on the tombstones, he said.

He also doubted that the case was done by a drunken person who had lost his mind. Instead, it was probably quite well-planned and premeditated because a drunken person would have stopped after punching one or two pictures, but not all of them, he said.

Analysts presumed that the wanton act was motivated by discontent of social unfairness. Immigration Service Officers Association chairman William Lee Hok-lim said there were many channels available for expressing discontent and the vandals had acted childishly.

Source: Xinhua