Showing posts with label Human rights. Show all posts
Saturday 18 October 2014
Hong Kong activists regroup; police chief warns safety at risk
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(Reuters) - Hong Kong pro-democracy activists recaptured parts of a core protest zone from police early on Saturday after hours of turmoil that the city's police chief warned undermined order and jeopardised public safety.
Dozens of people were injured in the skirmishes, including 18 police, which raged through the night as several thousand protesters squared off again police in the densely populated Mong Kok district.
At least 33 people were arrested, Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK reported.
Police used batons and pepper spray, and scuffled violently with activists, but they were eventually forced to pull back less than 24 hours after they re-opened most of the area to traffic.
The protests have been going on for three weeks and pose one of the biggest political challenges for China since the crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing in 1989.
Hong Kong Police Commissioner Andy Tsang broke three weeks of public silence to say his force had been "extremely tolerant" but had failed to stop protesters becoming more "radical or violent".
"To these protesters, you may think that your illegal acts have prevented the police in going about our duties, disrupted our deployments and even forced us to retreat," Tsang told a news conference.
"Superficially, that may be the case. But let me tell you this: these illegal acts are undermining the rule of law, undermining (what) Hong Kong has been relying on to succeed."
After police retreated, demonstrators swiftly stacked up barricades made out of packing crates and fences. Tsang said the reoccupation of the area "seriously undermined public order and seriously jeopardized public safety".
The protesters, led by a restive generation of students, have been demanding China's Communist Party rulers live up to constitutional promises to grant full democracy to the former British colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Hong Kong is ruled under a "one country, two systems" formula that allows the thriving capitalist hub wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms and specifies universal suffrage for Hong Kong as an eventual goal.
But Beijing ruled on Aug. 31 it would screen candidates who want to run for the city's chief executive in 2017, which democracy activists said rendered the universal suffrage concept meaningless. The protesters are demanding free elections for their leader.
'WE WILL STAY'
The clashes came just hours after Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying offered talks to student leaders next week in an attempt to defuse the protests that have grabbed global headlines with scenes of clashes and tear gas rising between some of the world's most valuable office buildings.
Leung's chief secretary, Carrie Lam, announced on Saturday that between student leaders and the city government would take place for two hours on Tuesday.
The Mong Kok area was calm later on Saturday with the number of protesters much smaller as activists rested. Police stood in formation away from the barricades.
Posters declaring "Reclaim Mong Kok!" had been plastered on shop fronts. The protesters who remained were bracing for another bruising night.
Student Angel So, 20, said she was determined to stop police clearing the area again. "We'll keep coming back," she said, as a friend, Terry Leung, nursed grazes on his arms and legs from scuffles with police.
Joshua Wong, a bookish 18-year-old whose fiery speeches have helped drive the protests, was defiant.
"We will stay and fight till the end," he told Reuters as he surveyed the crowd during the night, from on top of a subway station exit.
The escalation in the confrontation illustrates the dilemma faced by police in trying to strike a balance between law enforcement and not inciting the protesters who have been out since late last month in three core shopping and government districts.
Besides Mong Kok, about 1,000 protesters remained camped out on Hong Kong Island in a sea of tents on an eight-lane highway beneath skyscrapers close to government headquarters.
Despite Leung's offer of talks next week, few expect any resolution without more concrete concessions from authorities.
Saturday 11 October 2014
Pitching tents, Hong Kong democracy protesters dig in for long haul
(Reuters) - Hundreds of student activists camped overnight at major protest sites in Hong Kong as the democracy movement sought to regather momentum after the government called off talks with its leaders aimed at defusing unrest in the global financial hub.
Protests escalated late last month, after Beijing's decision on August 31 to impose conditions for nominations that would effectively stop pro-democracy candidates from contesting an election of the city's chief executive set for 2017.
The occupation movement suffered a noticeable dip in support over the past week, but strong crowds of over ten thousand returned on Friday evening for a series of rallies in the former British colony.
By Saturday afternoon many protesters were coming back again to join the stalwarts who had camped overnight.
"Hong Kong is my home, we are fighting for Hong Kong's future, our future," Lawrence Chan, a 23 year-old media studies student, who has participated in the protests from the outset, told Reuters.
Hong Kong Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said on Thursday that the government had called off talks with the students because of their persistent calls to escalate action.
"It seems like they (the government) don't want to (have a) conversation with us. But I think this amount of people shows that we really want to solve the problem with the government," said Kiki Choi, a 25-year-old art teacher among the protesters.
Since taking to the streets around two weeks ago, the activists have blockaded major roads around the government precinct in Admiralty, as well as the shopping districts of Central and Causeway Bay.
At Friday's rallies, protest leaders urged demonstrators to prepare for a protracted struggle instead of expanding the protests geographically. The protests have led to some resentment among the public due to the resulting traffic jams and loss of business.
It was unclear how long Hong Kong authorities will tolerate the occupation or how the standoff might be resolved. For now, however, the police presence remains thin with authorities seemingly reluctant to risk fresh flare-ups.
Riot police had cracked down on protesters massing near the government headquarters on Sept. 28, but the authorities have taken a softer line since.
Over one hundred colorful tents were sprinkled across the eight-lane Harcourt Road highway, among scores of red and blue portable marquees serving as supply and first aid stations; stocked with water, biscuits, noodles and cereals.
"We have tents here to show our determination that we're prepared for a long term occupation," said Benny Tai, one of the leaders of the movement, emerging bleary-eyed on Saturday morning from a tent pitched outside the Hong Kong government's headquarters.
Scores of people ran a marathon in support of the students early on Saturday, and bridges remained festooned with umbrellas, protest art demanding full democracy and satirical images lampooning Leung Chun-ying, the city's Beijing-backed leader.
The 'Occupy Central' protests, an idea conceived over a year ago referring to the Central business district, have presented Beijing with one of its biggest political challenges since it crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital in 1989.
NO SIMPLE WAY OUT
In the first direct public comments by a senior Chinese leader in response to the protests, Premier Li Keqiang said Hong Kong authorities had the ability to protect the city's economic prosperity and social stability.
"Maintaining the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong is not only in China's interests but is mostly in the interests of the people of Hong Kong," Li said in Germany on Friday.
Since Britain handed back control in 1997, China has ruled Hong Kong through a "one country, two systems" formula which allows wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland and specifies universal suffrage as an eventual goal.
The Communist Party leadership has dismissed the Hong Kong protests as illegal and has left Leung to find a solution.
Beijing fears that calls for democracy in Hong Kong could spread to the mainland, with China already facing separatist unrest in far-flung Tibet and Xinjiang.
Leung has so far ignored protesters demands for full democracy and their calls for him to quit. Earlier this week, some lawmakers demanded that anti-graft officers investigate a $6.4 million business payout to Leung, while in office.
The leader of Hong Kong's largest pro-Beijing political party, Tam Yiu-chung, conceded after a late meeting with Leung that while the protests should be cleared as soon as possible: "It is not a simple thing and it is not a ripe time now."
Weekend rally in St. Louis against police violence starts peacefully
(Reuters) - Weekend protests in the St. Louis area against police violence have made a tense but peaceful start, with none of the clashes with police that have affected Missouri in recent weeks.
Civil rights organizations and protest groups invited people from around the country to join vigils and marches from Friday to Monday over the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.
A march is planned for Saturday morning through downtown St. Louis, with discussions about race and teach-ins about how to interact with police officers set to follow, according to organizing groups like Hands Up United.
The weekend's demonstrations kicked off on Friday afternoon with hundreds peacefully marching through the rain to the St. Louis County courthouse in Clayton, adjacent to St. Louis. Protesters have called for the arrest and prosecution of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who shot the unarmed Brown, as a grand jury weighs whether he should be charged in the killing.
Some 300 people later assembled outside the nearby Ferguson Police Department, chanting phrases like "Who are we? Mike Brown!" and "Indict. Convict. Send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell!" just inches away from dozens of officers clad in riot gear.
Into early Saturday morning, many protesters moved to the St. Louis neighborhood of Shaw, where 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers Jr. was shot dead by an off-duty white officer working for a private security firm in what police described as a firefight on Wednesday.
While the atmosphere was at times tense, there were none of the clashes with police that have marked protests in the St. Louis area in the wake of Brown's killing. Police said as of early Saturday there had been no arrests, injuries or damage from the night's protests.
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said law enforcement authorities in the area are planning for large crowds and possible violence, particularly given the killing of Myers on Wednesday. Police arrested eight people during chaotic protests that followed that killing on Thursday night.
Monday 6 October 2014
Hong Kong protests subside after tumultuous week
(AP) — Passionate student-led protests for democratic reforms in Hong Kong subsided Monday but a few hundred demonstrators remained camped out, vowing to keep up the pressure on the government until officials show they are sincere in responding to their demands.
Schools reopened and civil servants returned to work Monday morning after protesters cleared the area outside the city's government headquarters, where they had gathered for more than a week.
About 25 protesters, mostly students, refused to budge from the site, and some say they plan to stay for as long as they can. Another couple hundred protesters remained in the Mong Kok area where some scuffles broke out over the weekend.
Parts of a main thoroughfare through the heart of the business district remained closed.
Student demonstrators say they have taken early steps to begin talks with the government on their demands for wider political reforms, but actual negotiations have not started and many disagreements remain.
Tens of thousands of people, many of them students, have poured into the streets of the semi-autonomous city since Sept. 28 to peacefully protest China's restrictions on the first direct election for Hong Kong's leader, promised by Beijing for 2017. The protests are the strongest challenge to authorities in Beijing since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
China has promised that Hong Kong can have universal suffrage by 2017, but it says a committee of mostly pro-Beijing figures must screen candidates for the top job. The protesters also are demanding the resignation of Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, the city's current leader, but he has refused to step down.
Some activists disagree with the partial withdrawal at government headquarters, and an alliance of students say they will keep up their protests until details of the talks are worked out. They say they will walk away from the talks as soon as the government uses force to clear away the remaining protesters.
Alex Chow, a student leader, said he was not worried about the crowd dwindling.
"Because people need rest, but they will come out again. It doesn't mean the movement is diminishing. Many people still support it," Chow said.
But Louis Chan, who still plans to stay at the government headquarters for "as long as he can," is not sure achieving universal suffrage — the students' original goal — is now likely.
"I think it was possible, but now I don't think so because they (the Hong Kong government) don't give any response and China is also very much against this," he said.
Police said they had arrested 30 people since the start of the protests. Protesters, meanwhile, complained the police were failing to protect them from attacks by mobs intent on driving them away.
Saturday 4 October 2014
Judge orders release of Guantanamo videotapes
(AP) — A federal judge on Friday ordered the public release of 28 videotapes of a hunger-striking Guantanamo Bay prisoner strike being forcibly removed from his cell and force-fed.
Lawyers for the prisoner, Abu Wa'el Dhiab, have challenged his treatment as abusive.
Numerous news media outlets, including The Associated Press, had asked the court on June 20 to unseal the videotapes, which are classified "secret."
U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler granted the news media's request, although Kessler said the tapes will remain sealed until some information on them is redacted. The material to be removed includes identifying information of everyone on the tapes except for the prisoner. She said faces other than Dhiab's will be obscured, as will voices and names.
"Protection of the identities of Guantanamo Bay staff is a legitimate goal," Kessler wrote. "Adequate protection can be provided by appropriate audio and visual edits, for example, blurring faces and identifying portions of uniforms, and blacking-out written materials on walls." The government could appeal her ruling.
Dhiab's lawyer, Jon Eisenberg, said that "we are very gratified by this decision, which will enable the American people to see with their own eyes the sorts of abuses that are being heaped on these peacefully hunger-striking detainees."
"Once the truth is fully brought to light, we believe these terrible practices will come to an end," Eisenberg said.
AP attorney David Schulz welcomed the decision, calling it "a strong reaffirmation of the public's right to know what their government is up to."
Dhiab was told in the spring he would be resettled in Uruguay, along with five other Guantanamo prisoners. But as the months have dragged on and the transfer put on hold, his standoff with military officials has only deteriorated, at times turning violent.
On Thursday, the judge rejected a request by the Obama administration to close a hearing into Dhiab's case scheduled for Monday.
Dhiab, a Syrian prisoner, has been held at the Navy-run prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since August 2002.
The Obama administration has been in court for months seeking to limit the amount of information released in Dhiab's case.
"The court is well aware, as the government has emphasized, that in no case involving Guantanamo Bay detainees has any court ordered disclosure of classified information over the government's opposition," Kessler wrote in a 29-page opinion ordering release of the tapes.
"However — to be clear — that does not mean that in a given factual situation no court has the discretion to do so if warranted," the judge added.
Standard protocol at penal institutions nationwide is to videotape forcible cell extractions. What's unusual about these videotapes is that many of them include footage of force-feedings in addition to forcible cell extractions.
AP attorney David Schulz called the decision "a strong reaffirmation of the public's right to know what their government is up to."
Hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay have been taking place since the early days of the island facility's use as a prison for terrorist suspects following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
In early 2013, as many as 100 detainees began a hunger strike to protest their uncertain fate. The U.S. has long disclosed how many are refusing to eat and whether they meet military guidelines to be force fed. But late last year, the disclosure ended. A Navy spokesman said in December 2013 that peaceful protest was allowed but that reporting numbers to the public would no longer be done.
The former Navy commander at Guantanamo Bay, Rear Adm. Richard Butler, said in a court declaration filed in July that even though the forced cell extraction videos are lawful, humane and appropriate, they "are particularly susceptible to use as propaganda and to incite a public reaction because of their depiction of forcible ... guard interaction with detainees."
The videos that also contain footage of forced-feedings could be used "to foment anti-American sentiment and inflame Muslim sensitivities as it depicts ... personnel providing medical care to a detainee while he is restrained," Butler said in the declaration.
Making public a video showing a detainee receiving medical care while restrained "would exacerbate the world's perception of detainees in U.S. custody," Butler added. "Public release, in whole or in part, of videos showing forced cell extractions" or feedings would cause "serious damage to national security."
In her ruling, Kessler disputed many of Butler's points.
After viewing the government videos and analyzing Butler's arguments, she found that they were "unacceptably vague, speculative, lack specificity or are just plain implausible," she wrote.
The government has already released substantial information relating to the feeding process, including the layout of and equipment in the feeding space.
"It strains credulity to conclude that release of these videos has a substantial probability of causing the harm the government predicts," Kessler wrote.
The government argues that releasing the videos would allow adversaries to reconstruct portions of the camp infrastructure, threatening the security of the camps. But the judge noted that much of that information already is in the public domain.
Rival protesters face off in gritty Hong Kong neighborhood
(Reuters) - More than a thousand rival protesters, some wearing helmets, faced off in a densely populated, gritty district of Hong Kong on Saturday, fuelling concerns that the Chinese-controlled city's worst unrest in decades could take a more violent turn.
After a night of trouble which resulted in 19 arrests, supporters of the city's pro-Beijing government rallied next to pro-democracy protesters in Mong Kok, a working class neighborhood near the popular shopping district of Tsim Tsa Shui.
Many Hong Kong residents expressed anger and frustration at police handling of the unrest, with some accusing security forces of co-operating with criminal gangs, failing to make arrests and helping some attackers to exit the scene quickly.
"We condemn the violence used against Hong Kong civilians yesterday," said student leader Joshua Wong.
"I find it ironic how people accuse us of being violent and radical and now after one week of peaceful protests the ones who use violence is them - the government that allows Triads to exercise brutality on peaceful protesters."
After a week of largely peaceful demonstrations demanding Beijing grant Hong Kong the unfettered right to choose its own leader, the mood turned ugly on Friday night in an area notorious for being the home of Triads.
A rowdy crowd of around 2,000 filled the narrow streets of Mong Kok, one of the world's most densely populated areas, in the small hours of Saturday and the atmosphere was highly charged as police in riot gear tried to keep them under control.
Among those detained by police were eight suspected gang members. Eighteen people were injured, including six police officers, according to local broadcaster RTHK.
Student activists, established protest groups and ordinary Hong Kongers have joined forces to present Beijing with one of its biggest political challenges since it violently crushed pro-democracy protests in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Tens of thousands of protesters have staged sit-ins across Hong Kong over the past week, demanding the city's pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying step down and China reverse a decision made in August to handpick the candidates for Hong Kong's 2017 leadership election.
After police fired tear gas against mostly student protesters last weekend, the demonstrations have been largely peaceful.
But on Saturday, some pro-democracy supporters - umbrellas in hand and wearing motor-bike helmets, gloves and black leather jackets - braced for trouble. Scores of yellow signs around the site occupied by pro-democracy supporters read: "Police and mob working together - an alternative violent crackdown."
The pro-Beijing group, Caring Hong Kong Power, that organized the Mong Kok rally on Saturday afternoon said it supported the use of guns by police, if necessary, and also the deployment of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Hong Kong leader Leung has said the use of PLA soldiers would not be necessary.
One of the main student groups behind the "Occupy Central" protest movement said it would pull out of planned talks with the Hong Kong government, because it believed authorities had colluded in the attacks on demonstrators in Mong Kok.
Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok said allegations police were co-operating with the Triads were false.
The notorious gangs operate bars, nightclubs and massage parlors across Mong Kok, an area of high-rise apartment blocks across the harbor from the main protest areas.
At times over the past week, police have left the streets, saying they wanted to ease tensions, though the reason for their apparent absence from this scene on Saturday morning was unclear.
Police have defended their handling of fighting in the area, saying they had exercised "dignity and restraint and tried our best to keep the situation under control".
But Amnesty International issued a statement criticizing them for "(failing) in their duty to protect hundreds of peaceful pro-democracy protesters from attacks by counter demonstrators."
The Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) and local broadcaster RTHK all strongly condemned violent attacks on members of the press during street clashes over the past 24 hours.
"Hong Kong is in a turmoil unseen after the 1967 riot. Without an effective monitor of the media, the condition will only deteriorate further, making any rational discussion impossible," the HKJA said in a statement.
About 1,000 protesters maintained their blockade outside administrative buildings in the city center.
PROTESTS "BUT A DAYDREAM"
The ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, in a front page editorial on Saturday, praised Hong Kong police for their restraint in the face of what it said was lawless protests, including "poking" of police with umbrellas.
The protests will never spill over into the rest of China, the newspaper added. "For the minority of people who want to foment a 'color revolution' on the mainland by way of Hong Kong, this is but a daydream."
Facing separatist unrest in far-flung and resource-rich Tibet and Xinjiang, Beijing is standing firm on Hong Kong, fearful that calls for democracy there could spread to the mainland, especially if successful.
Demonstrations across Hong Kong have ebbed and flowed since last Sunday, when police used pepper spray, tear gas and batons to break them up in the worst unrest in Hong Kong since the former British colony was handed back to Chinese rule in 1997.
At times, tens of thousands of people gathered to block roads and buildings in central areas of the global financial center, bringing them to a virtual standstill.
China rules Hong Kong through a "one country, two systems" formula underpinned by the Basic Law, which accords Hong Kong some autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland and has universal suffrage as an eventual goal.
But Beijing decreed on Aug. 31 it would vet candidates who want to run for chief executive at an election in 2017, angering democracy activists, who took to the streets.
Friday 3 October 2014
Hong Kong protesters face backlash, threaten to abandon talks
(Reuters) - Pro-democracy protesters faced off against supporters of Chinese rule in Hong Kong's teeming Mong Kok district early on Saturday, in a tense confrontation that has undermined hopes for talks aimed at ending a week of turmoil.
Scuffles broke out late on Friday between people demanding full democracy in the former British colony, including a free voting system when they come to choose a new leader in 2017, and residents who want the demonstrations to end.
Protesters said they believed criminal gangs, or Triads, whose base is in the densely populated Mong Kok, were involved.
Police intervened to prevent an escalation in the violence, but a rowdy crowd of around two thousand filled a major intersection in the small hours of Saturday and the atmosphere remained highly charged as police officers in riot gear tried to keep them under control.
Demonstrations across Hong Kong have ebbed and flowed since Sunday, when police used pepper spray, tear gas and batons to break them up in the worst unrest in Hong Kong since the former British colony was handed back to Chinese rule in 1997.
At times, tens of thousands of people gathered to block roads and buildings in central areas, bringing them to a virtual standstill.
Student activists, established protest groups and ordinary Hong Kongers have joined forces to present Beijing with one of its biggest political challenges since it violently crushed pro-democracy protests in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.
One of the main student groups behind the "Occupy Central" protest movement said it would pull out of planned talks with the Hong Kong government, because it believed authorities had colluded in the attacks on demonstrators in Mong Kok.
"The government and police today connived in the attack by Triads ... on peaceful occupiers, so they have shut the way to dialogue and must bear the consequences," the Hong Kong Federation of Students said in a strongly worded statement.
The notorious Triads operate bars, nightclubs and massage parlors across Mong Kok, an area of high-rise apartment blocks some distance from the main protest areas.
Witnesses said anti-Triad police wearing trademark black vests were active in the area on Friday.
Police have defended their handling of fighting in the area, saying they had exercised "dignity and restraint and tried our best to keep the situation under control".
But Amnesty International issued a statement criticizing them for "(failing) in their duty to protect hundreds of peaceful pro-democracy protesters from attacks by counter demonstrators."
"NO PAIN, NO GAIN"
Earlier this week, Hong Kong's leader Leung Chun-ying rejected protesters' demands to resign, and he and his Chinese government allies made clear they would not back down.
He did, however, offer talks with leaders of a movement that has shaken Hong Kong's image as a stable financial hub.
Kit Lui, a 32-year-old restaurant owner sitting under a tent in the middle of the Mong Kok crowd, said she understood why people blamed protesters for harming the economy, but that it was a price worth paying.
"No pain, no gain," she said. "Yes, maybe these few days the economy will be hurt, but if we don't speak up this time the situation will get worse and worse. It's not the future that we want to see. We are worried about our future.
"Frankly speaking, I don't know where this revolution will go," she added, reflecting growing uncertainty among the pro-democracy movement, as numbers at some protest sites dwindle and public displeasure with the demonstrations mounts.
Teacher Victor Ma, 42, summed up the mood of many residents: "We are all fed up and our lives are affected. You don't hold Hong Kong citizens hostage because it's not going to work. That's why the crowd is very angry here."
China rules Hong Kong through a "one country, two systems" formula underpinned by the Basic Law, which accords Hong Kong some autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland and has universal suffrage as an eventual goal.
But Beijing decreed on Aug. 31 it would vet candidates who want to run for chief executive at an election in 2017, angering democracy activists, who took to the streets.
While Leung made an apparent concession by offering talks, Beijing restated its resolute opposition to the protests and a completely free vote in Hong Kong.
Facing separatist unrest in far-flung and resource-rich Tibet and Xinjiang, Beijing is unlikely to give way in Hong Kong, fearful that calls for democracy there could spread to the mainland, especially if successful.
The economic impact of the unrest has begun to be felt.
Hong Kong's benchmark share index, the Hang Seng, plunged 7.3 percent in September, in part because of the uncertainty surrounding the protests, and was down 2.6 percent on the week on Friday.
Luxury goods companies have taken a substantial hit, analysts say, with wealthy Chinese avoiding Hong Kong and going to other cities to shop instead.
Thursday 2 October 2014
Hong Kong leader offers talks with protesters
(AP) — Hong Kong's embattled leader refused to step down Thursday, as pro-democracy protesters have demanded, and instead offered talks to defuse a week of massive street demonstrations that are the biggest challenge to Beijing's authority since China took control of the former British colony in 1997.
Student leaders of the protests did not immediately respond to the announcement by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. A wider pro-democracy group that joined the mass protests, Occupy Central, welcomed the talks but insisted that Leung still should resign.
Occupy Central "hopes the talks can provide a turning point in the current political stalemate," it said in a statement. "However, we reiterate our view that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying is the one responsible for the stalemate, and that he must step down."
Leung made his comments at a news conference just minutes before a deadline that had been set by the protesters for him to quit.
"I will not resign," he said.
Leung asked the territory's top civil servant, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, to arrange the talks.
Lam, standing beside Leung, said she would seek to meet with student leaders of the protests as soon as possible.
"I hope both sides will be satisfied," she said. "Students had wanted a public meeting but I hope that we can have some flexibility to discuss details."
The protesters want Beijing to reverse its decision that all candidates in an inaugural 2017 election for chief executive must be approved by a committee of mostly pro-Beijing elites. They say China is reneging on its promise that the city's top leader will be chosen through "universal suffrage."
Before Leung's announcement, the heads of two major universities whose students joined in launching the protests appeared before a jittery crowd massed in front of the entrance to the leader's office and appealed for calm.
Afterward, the atmosphere was palpably calmer, but many protesters expressed disappointment.
"They didn't mention anything about when they are going to talk, no details, nothing," said Joanna Wong, 28, who works in the aviation industry. Wong said she would stay at the protest site to see how the student groups react to the announcement.
Marketing professional Heiman Chan, 25, said the talks should take place right away.
"If we need to wait two or three days, the crowd will become smaller and there will be fewer people to support this movement," she said. "That's why the government just keeps us waiting."
Earlier in the day, police brought in supplies of tear gas and other riot gear, and the protesters prepared face masks and goggles as tensions rose in the standoff outside the imposing government compound near the waterfront.
Police warned of serious consequences if the protesters tried to surround or occupy government buildings, as they had threatened to do if Leung didn't resign by the end of Thursday.
Leung said shortly before midnight that the authorities would continue to tolerate the protests as long as participants did not charge police lines, but urged them to stop their occupation of much of the downtown area.
"I urge students not to charge into or occupy government buildings. ... It's not about my personal inconvenience," he said. "These few days the protesters' occupation of key areas of the city has already seriously affected Hong Kong's economy, people's daily lives and government functioning."
The People's Daily, published by China's ruling Communist Party, warned in a commentary Thursday of "chaos" in the city of 7 million and expressed strong support for Leung.
It said the central government firmly backed the Hong Kong police — who were criticized for using tear gas against protesters last weekend — "to handle illegal activities in accordance with the law."
Ivy Chan, a 25-year-old social worker, said she hoped the proposed talks would yield results and that tear gas wouldn't be used again.
"What we want to fight for is our freedom, and the free nomination of candidates for our chief executive," she said.
Wednesday 1 October 2014
In 'Umbrella Revolution,' China confronts limits of its power
(Reuters) - In the heart of Mong Kok, one of the most densely populated districts on earth, an abandoned Hong Kong police van is enveloped in the student-led demonstrations paralyzing swathes of the city. Along with yellow ribbons and flowers, symbols of the city’s pro-democracy movement, protesters have taped a hand-written placard in Chinese and English to the side of the locked and undamaged vehicle.
“We can’t accept the Hong Kong police becoming the Gong An,” it reads - a reference to China’s feared Public Security Bureau, which enjoys virtually unfettered powers on the mainland.
The stranded police vehicle and the protesters’ warning encapsulate the dilemma that the mass protests pose for China’s rulers and the authorities in Hong Kong. They need to contain the campaign for democracy in one of Asia’s leading financial hubs without the tools employed on the mainland to suppress dissent, including sweeping powers of arrest, indefinite detention, compliant courts and a controlled media.
While People’s Liberation Army forces are stationed in Hong Kong, they have remained in their barracks. They will only be deployed on the streets if rioting and looting break out and the local police are unable to contain the violence, said two people with ties to the central government leadership.
“The mobilization of PLA troops in Hong Kong is a last resort and only if things got totally out of control," one of the people said.
As tens of thousands of protesters gather for a sixth day, their demand for the right to choose their leaders in fully democratic elections poses the biggest popular challenge to the ruling Communist Party since Chinese president Xi Jinping took power two years ago. The Umbrella Revolution, so called for the protesters’ use of umbrellas to shield against pepper spray, comes at an inopportune time for Xi. He is trying to steer a slowing economy while moving against powerful vested interests in one of the most wide-ranging purges and anti-corruption campaigns since the Communists came to power in 1949.
“It is a frontal challenge to their authority,” Regina Ip, a lawmaker and a top advisor to Hong Kong’s embattled political leader, chief executive Leung Chun-ying, says of the protests. “People have to understand how Beijing sees this... China feels threatened,” Ip told Reuters.
SKINNY 17-YEAR-OLD
At the forefront of this challenge is student leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung, a skinny 17-year-old with a mop of straight black hair framing his angular face.
Last Friday, after a week-long student boycott of classes, Wong was demonstrating with hundreds of secondary school students outside the Hong Kong government’s harbor-front offices. It was 10 p.m. and some of the students were beginning to drift off when Wong picked up the microphone.
“Please everybody, don’t go just yet,” he pleaded in his crisp, staccato Cantonese through the shrill feedback of the speaker. “Please give me some face and listen before leaving,” he joked. “Ok!” the students yelled back.
As Wong spoke, fellow student leaders Alex Chow and Lester Shum, followed by their colleagues, suddenly rushed the three-meter fence and gate protecting the government offices, shouting: “Charge, charge.”
Police arrested Wong immediately and took Chow and Shum into custody the next day. But legal limits on the power of the authorities soon frustrated their efforts to take the student leaders out of circulation.
In the High Court on Sunday evening, Justice Patrick Li Hon-leung ordered Wong’s immediate release, granting a writ of habeas corpus, one of the British-implemented protections that Hong Kong inherited from its former colonial master. Wong would have no such protection on the mainland where an equivalent right doesn’t exist and where protest leaders are often beaten and routinely detained for long periods without trial.
Wong’s lawyer, Michael Vidler, says Justice Li told the court that events might have taken a different course if Wong had not been detained for so long. In the two days Wong and his fellow student leaders were held without charge, tens of thousands of protesters had converged on the government offices and three other Hong Kong districts. About an hour before Justice Li ordered Wong’s release, riot police had fired volleys of tear gas in a bid to break up the demonstrations, the first time in decades that this riot control measure had been used against Hong Kong protesters.
Flanked by his lawyers, Wong pushed his right hand forward waist-high and flashed a defiant thumbs up as he walked free. His detention had provided the spark that galvanized the city’s pro-democracy movement and kick-started Occupy Central, a long-mooted plan to lock down the commercial heart of China’s most important financial center.
"DON'T REPEAT JUNE 4"
While leaders in Hong Kong consult with Beijing on how best to clear the streets, the student-dominated protests will be an unnerving reminder for Xi and other top party leaders of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations 25 years ago, in June 1989. That isn’t lost on the students. On Sogo Corner in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong’s neon-lit equivalent of New York’s Times Square, protesters have put up posters that carry the words “Don’t repeat June 4.”
Already, an image from the Hong Kong protests that draws a parallel with the iconic “tank man” photograph from the Tiananmen demonstrations has gone viral on social media. The image is drawn from a photograph of a protester holding two umbrellas aloft as he is enveloped in a cloud of tear gas.
The greatest fear for China’s leaders is that unrest could spread from Hong Kong to the mainland. While Chinese online censors have barred most discussion of the protests, during the first few days they failed to block searches for the Chinese expression for “umbrella revolution”. By Wednesday, they had caught up and the term had also been barred. For its part, the state-run media mostly limited its coverage of events in Hong Kong to official condemnations of the protests.
But there are signs that news of the demonstrations has penetrated the mainland firewall. Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a coalition of mainland and international human rights groups, said on Wednesday that dozens of mainland activists had been detained or intimidated for expressing support for Hong Kong’s protests. Reuters could not immediately confirm the detentions.
In Macau, the gambling hub that neighbors Hong Kong and where the mainland exerts more influence, several hundred protesters gathered in a central square Wednesday evening in support of the protests. Hong Kong has an independent judiciary and its citizens enjoy wide-ranging liberties, including freedom of speech and assembly, which is denied on the mainland.
NO EASY CHOICES
There are no easy choices for Xi or Leung, China’s handpicked man in Hong Kong. If they order a harsh crackdown, it could destroy Hong Kong’s reputation as a stable financial center, jeopardize investment in China and spark capital outflows from the mainland at a time when the Chinese economy is slowing markedly. China is aiming for economic growth of about 7.5 per cent this year. But a run of underwhelming data, including sagging industrial output and falling property prices, suggests expansion may fall short of that target.
A heavy-handed response could also fatally undermine the ‘one country two systems’ formula by which Hong Kong has been ruled since the 1997 handover and which China’s leaders have hoped would one day be extended to Taiwan. Already there have been protests in Taipei in solidarity with the Hong Kong students.
“One country, two systems has also been touted for Taiwan,” says Ken Kuo, a Taiwan exchange student living in Hong Kong. He joined the protests in the Admiralty district, where crowds have been largest. “But, as you can see, today’s Hong Kong will be tomorrow’s Taiwan if it is adopted.”
There is also no guarantee that greater force will end the protests. So far, the use of pepper spray and tear gas has only emboldened protesters. It has also won them greater sympathy from residents of the city who view these police tactics as excessive. Trucks from sympathetic businesses have delivered food and bottled water to the protest areas.
The demonstrators have also adopted tactics that make it difficult for the authorities to crack down. Despite the humidity, thunderstorms, crowding and limited facilities in Hong Kong this week, the crowds have been highly disciplined, avoiding violence and confrontation since after the early attempt by the small group of students to force their way into government headquarters.
TIDY REBELS
Teams of volunteers pick up rubbish and litter, even sorting it for recycling. Supplies of food and water are organized in neat stockpiles along the edges of the main traffic arteries in the center of Hong Kong. And the demonstrators, who are blocking key roads, obediently part for ambulances and emergency vehicles.
Protest leaders constantly remind the crowds that they must be peaceful and orderly. On Wednesday morning, when a small group of anti-Occupy Central protesters arrived in Admiralty district, pro-democracy demonstrators linked hands protectively around them to ensure there was no chance of a clash.
After the use of tear gas and pepper spray only succeeded in stoking the demonstrations, police beat a tactical retreat, distancing themselves from the main centers of protest. The hope is that the demonstrators will tire and melt away, said a senior police officer in Hong Kong. In what appears to be part of this plan, pro-mainland groups that routinely mount noisy counter-demonstrations to pro-democracy marches have been largely unseen on the streets.
But if the standoff worsens and Xi is seen to be unsuccessful in ending the protests, that could work against him, says Cheng Li, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Xi and his supporters have launched a sweeping corruption crackdown across the mainland, partly designed to take down a dangerous rival, retired senior leader Zhou Yongkang, who used to head China’s pervasive security apparatus. The ongoing purge of Zhou and his sprawling network of relatives, political allies and business supporters has convulsed leadership politics in Beijing. A misstep from Xi that leads to ongoing instability in Hong Kong could provide ammunition for his rivals.
FISSURES IN BEIJING
For now, China’s leaders are united in their attitude toward Hong Kong, said Li. If the confrontation escalates, Xi could become vulnerable to attack from other leaders who might be unhappy over his corruption crackdown or economic policies, he said.
“They are on the same page largely,” Li said of the leadership. “But if some dramatic events start to happen, they might start to have a different view.”
Xi will not back down on China’s decision that only a handful of Beijing-vetted candidates can stand for the next elections for Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2017, says lawmaker Regina Ip.
“In their eyes, the Hong Kong chief executive is more powerful than a provincial Chinese leader,” says Ip, who held talks in Beijing last month with Zhang Dejiang, China’s third-ranked leader and the top official responsible for Hong Kong. “From their perspective, it is unthinkable that a future leader of Hong Kong is not patriotic or that Hong Kong was allowed to become a base for subversion.”
One China-based Western diplomat likened the showdown in Hong Kong to a game of chicken. “Two cars speed toward one another,” the diplomat said. “Beijing’s strategy is to throw away the steering wheel so the other party has to swerve away first. It’s like that with full democracy.”
Pro-democracy forces are also standing firm. Even if the protests unwind, the Hong Kong and mainland authorities will still face the fundamental question posed by the demonstrators: Why can't educated, moderate and law-abiding Chinese people choose their own leaders? As the swelling protests indicate, Xi has yet to provide an answer that would satisfy protesters in Hong Kong or for that matter Taiwan's voters who have grown accustomed to changing their government at the ballot box.
Much of the pressure now falls on Leung. He must find a way to end the protests that will satisfy Beijing without completely alienating the residents of Hong Kong.
"HANDS OFF"?
The leadership in Beijing appears to have shifted the onus to him. "The central government did not pressure Hong Kong to disperse the protesters,” said another source with ties to the leadership in Beijing. "The Hong Kong government was proactive because it did not want to be perceived by the central government to be weak."
A person close to Leung who spoke on condition of anonymity said Beijing was being “very hands off” in what he described as a “critical” moment for the current administration in Hong Kong. He also said that Leung has “never” considered acceding to the protesters’ demand that he resign.
In his National Day speech on Wednesday, Leung seemed to suggest that giving all the city’s five million eligible voters the right to cast a ballot for candidates that were vetted by Beijing was better than no elections at all. “It is understandable that different people may have different ideas about a desirable reform package,” he said. “But it is definitely better to have universal suffrage than not.”
Leung will also be wary of the power of Hong Kong protesters when they take to the streets in big numbers. A 500,000-strong protest on July 1, 2003, stunned the Hong Kong government and eventually forced Beijing's hand-picked leader, Tung Chee-hwa, to step down. It marked the first time since the founding of the People’s Republic of China that the Communist Party was forced to back down in the face of popular pressure and jettison a senior leader.
Leung and Tung, now an advisor to the mainland government, stood side-by-side in Hong Kong at the National Day flag-raising ceremony, which marks the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic on October 1, 1949. The protest leaders didn’t disrupt the event. But as Leung, his top officials and dignitaries watched the raising of the Chinese national flag, shouts and chants could be clearly heard from the protesters in Admiralty district, a block behind them.
In an embarrassment to Leung, the protesters did force the Hong Kong authorities to cancel the traditional fireworks display, a centerpiece of the National Day celebrations that normally draws a huge crowd to the harbor front. And he had to travel by boat to the ceremony because the roads were blocked by the protests.
Tuesday 30 September 2014
Lightning, rain fail to deter resolute Hong Kong protesters
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(Reuters) - Thousands of pro-democracy protesters thronged the rain-soaked streets of Hong Kong early on Wednesday, ratcheting up pressure on the pro-Beijing government that has called the action illegal and vowed to press ahead with National Day celebrations.
On the sixth day of a determined mass campaign to occupy sections of the city and express fury at a Chinese decision to limit voters' choices in a 2017 leadership election, there was little sign of momentum flagging.
That was despite widespread fears that police may use force to move crowds who have brought large sections of the Asian financial hub to a standstill and affected businesses from banks to jewellers.
Thunder, lightning and heavy rain failed to dampen spirits as protesters sought shelter under covered walkways, while police in raincoats and hats looked on passively nearby.
At the weekend, riot police had used tear gas, pepper spray and baton charges to try to quell the unrest, but since then tensions have eased as both sides appeared prepared to wait it out, at least for now.
Protests spread to Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the city's most popular shopping areas for mainland Chinese that would normally do roaring trade during the annual holiday marking the Communist Party's foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
But in the early morning hours, hundreds of demonstrators were milling around outside luxury stores and setting up makeshift barricades in anticipation of possible clashes. As in most parts of Hong Kong, the police presence was small.
M. Lau, a 56-year-old retiree, said he had taken to the streets of Hong Kong to protest in the 1980s, and wanted to do so again in a show of solidarity with a movement that has been led by students as well as more established activists.
"Later this morning I will come back," he said.
"I want to see more. Our parents and grandparents came to Hong Kong for freedom and the rule of law. This (protest) is to maintain our 160-year-old legal system for the next generation."
China rules Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" formula that accords the former British colony a degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, with universal suffrage set as an eventual goal.
But when Beijing ruled a month ago that it would vet candidates wishing to run for Hong Kong's leadership, protesters reacted angrily and called for Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying to step down.
Student leaders had given Leung an ultimatum to come out and address the crowds before midnight on Tuesday, threatening to occupy more government facilities, buildings and public roads if he failed to do so.
Leung did not comply, but has said that Beijing would not back down in the face of protests. He also said Hong Kong police would be able to maintain security without help from People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops from the mainland.
AGGRESSIVE CENSORSHIP
Communist Party leaders in Beijing worry that calls for democracy could spread to the mainland, and have been aggressively censoring news and social media comments about the Hong Kong demonstrations.
Mainland Chinese visiting Hong Kong had differing views on the demonstrations, being staged under the "Occupy" banner.
"For the first time in my life I feel close to politics," said a Chinese tourist from Beijing who gave only her surname, Yu. "This is a historic moment for Hong Kong. I believe something like this will happen in China one day," added the 29-year-old.
But a woman surnamed Lin, from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, said the protesters' demands for a democratic election were "disrespectful to the mainland."
"Even though the government has brought a lot of development to Hong Kong, they don't acknowledge this," Lin said.
The protests are the worst in Hong Kong since China resumed its rule in 1997. They also represent one of the biggest political challenges for Beijing since it violently crushed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Cracking down too hard could shake confidence in market-driven Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system from the rest of China. Not reacting firmly enough, however, could embolden dissidents on the mainland.
The deputy director of China's National People's Congress Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee, Li Shenming, wrote in the People's Daily: "In today's China, engaging in an election system of one-man-one-vote is bound to quickly lead to turmoil, unrest and even a situation of civil war."
NERVOUSNESS AT SENSITIVE TIME
Underlining nervousness among some activists that provocation on National Day could spark violence, students from Hong Kong University made an online appeal for people not to disturb the flag-raising ceremony.
"However much you dislike a country, disturbing her flag-raising ceremony is total disrespect and goes against the nature of democracy," it said, reminding readers that the international media was watching.
The outside world has looked on warily.
In Britain's strongest interjection yet, finance chief George Osborne urged China to seek peace and said the former colony's prosperity depended on freedom. Washington urged Hong Kong authorities "to exercise restraint and for protesters to express their views peacefully".
The events have also been followed closely in Taiwan, which has full democracy but is considered by Beijing as a renegade province that must one day be reunited with the mainland.
On the financial markets, Hong Kong shares fell to a three-month low on Tuesday, registering their biggest monthly fall since May 2012. Markets are closed on Wednesday and Thursday for the holidays.
The city's benchmark index has plunged 7.3 percent this month, and there were few indications that the protests are likely to end any time soon.
Over the last 24 hours, people have set up supply stations with water bottles, fruit, crackers, disposable raincoats, towels, goggles, face masks and tents, indicating they were in for the long haul.
"Even though I may get arrested, I will stay until the last minute," said 16-year-old John Choi. "We are fighting for our future."
Monday 29 September 2014
Death, Hunger Stalk Indian Tea-Estate Workers
(AP) — Death arrived soon after the Bundapani tea estate closed last year.
Deprived of health care and food rations, workers who had been scraping by on $1.50 per day were left with nothing. Bundapani's owner failed to raise the alarm as hundreds of workers slid into catastrophe.
"I have become like a beggar," said Ramesh Mahali, 59, struggling to stand. He has been unable to properly feed himself or his family since the closure. His wife, Puliya, seeming 20 years older than her 50, sat emaciated on the floor.
Seven workers died in the two months it took the government to become aware of the crisis, and the toll has continued to climb since. In the past year, at least 69 tea workers have died across Bundapani and four other shuttered tea plantations in West Bengal, according to the Right to Food campaign, an advisory committee to the Supreme Court that is monitoring the deaths.
More than 16,000 people have been left in extreme poverty at the estates, spread across the Dooars plains below Darjeeling, source of the famous brand known as the Champagne of teas.
The government has launched emergency food and medical relief, but conditions remain grim. Despite the aid, 14 people at Bundapani alone have died in the past eight months, either from malnutrition or inadequate medical care.
If the plantation had not closed, "these people would not have died," said Anuradha Talwar, a Right to Food activist. "These people are in a situation where they cannot afford basic things essential to survive."
In estates visited by The Associated Press, many workers were clearly underfed and a number suffering from diseases commonly related to malnutrition, such as tuberculosis. Many were skipping meals. The food aid — 2 kilograms of rice per week — falls below standard rations at refugee camps.
The workers' situation highlights how eastern India's tea industry has changed little since colonial times. The government has done little to penalize owners who abandon their workers, who in practice often depend on estate-owners' goodwill for survival.
"This is kind of the last hangover of a straightforwardly colonial relationship," said Harsh Mander, special adviser on food to India's Supreme Court.
Tea covers most of the plains under Darjeeling: miles of cropped green bushes, like a giant hedge maze.
Established by the British in the 1830s, the plantations became an essential image of empire, relying on indentured laborers. Workers now have the right to leave and access to free primary education, but their dependency on the estates for housing and food means that, in practice, little has changed.
There are tea plantations in other Indian states, including Assam and Kerala, but West Bengal's are widely seen as having the worst labor conditions. Most of its 200,000 tea workers are paid 95 rupees ($1.50) per day, three-quarters the state minimum wage and below the U.N.'s $2 a-day threshold for extreme poverty.
To survive, workers rely on additional benefits from the plantations, including food, housing and medical care, valued at about 65 rupees ($1) per day. After a closure, the health care and food rations disappear.
The five closures are being largely blamed on mismanagement. Although West Bengal's tea industry has declined recently, most plantations are functioning normally.
Owners have been prolonging the closures by engaging in lawsuits that prevent their plantations from reopening under new ownership. India's clogged court system means these challenges can take a decade.
Three of the closed plantations are owned by one man, Robin Paul, a Kolkata-based businessman, who owns the Surendragnagar, Dharanipur and Red Bank estates.
Sunil Bakhshi, 71, who recently retired as chief clerk at Surendranagar, said he hadn't been paid since 2003. He said eight people at Surendranagar had died in 18 months.
"We don't even have enough to eat," said Bakshi. "We are told to do our work and our dues will be cleared soon."
When reached by the AP by telephone, Paul declined to comment.
Attempts to contact Bundapani's owner, Rakesh Srivastava, and the owners of the other closed tea plantations were unsuccessful. Lawyers for Srivastava also refused to comment.
Bengal's chief minister has asked the national government to take over closed estates using legislation that allows the seizure of unproductive plantations. M.D. Rizwan, the joint labor commissioner for West Bengal, said the regional government is also urgently negotiating to reopen the estates.
Bakshi, the retired clerk, said all the workers can do is wait.
"We are helpless," he said.
Hong Kong protesters defy Beijing with calls for democracy
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(Reuters) - Hong Kong democracy protesters defied volleys of tear gas and police baton charges to stand firm in the centre of the global financial hub on Monday, one of the biggest political challenges for Beijing since the Tiananmen Square crackdown 25 years ago.
China wagged its finger at the student protesters, and warned against any foreign interference as they massed again in business and tourist districts of the city in the late afternoon.
"Hong Kong is China's Hong Kong," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying defiantly told a news briefing in Beijing.
The unrest, the worst in Hong Kong since China resumed its rule over the former British colony in 1997, sent white clouds of gas wafting among some of the world's most valuable office towers and shopping malls before riot police suddenly withdrew around lunchtime on Monday, after three nights of confrontation.
China rules Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" formula that accords the territory limited democracy. Tens of thousands of mostly student protesters are demanding Beijing give them full democracy, with the freedom to nominate election candidates, but China recently announced that it would not go that far.
As riot police withdrew on Monday, weary protesters slept beside roads or sheltered from the sun beneath umbrellas, which have become a symbol of what some are calling the "Umbrella Revolution". In addition to protection from the elements, umbrellas have been used as flimsy shields against pepper spray.
Nicola Cheung, an 18-year-old student from Baptist University, said the protesters in central Admiralty district were assessing the situation and planning what to do next.
"Yes, it's going to get violent again because the Hong Kong government isn't going to stand for us occupying this area," she said. "We are fighting for our core values of democracy and freedom, and that is not something violence can scare us away from."
Organisers have said that as many as 80,000 people have thronged the streets after the protests flared on Friday night. No independent estimate of numbers was available.
The protests, with no single identifiable leader, bring together a mass movement of mostly tech-savvy students who have grown up with freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China. The movement represents one of the biggest threats for Beijing's Communist Party leadership since its bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy student protests in and around Tiananmen Square.
Cracking down too hard could shake confidence in market-driven Hong Kong, while not reacting firmly enough could embolden dissidents on the mainland.
The protests are expected to escalate on Oct. 1, China's National Day holiday, with residents of the nearby former Portuguese enclave of Macau planning a rally. Pro-democracy supporters from other countries are also expected to protest, causing Beijing further embarrassment.
Such dissent would never be tolerated on the mainland, where the phrase "Occupy Central" was blocked on Sunday on Weibo, China's version of Twitter. The protests have received little coverage on the mainland, save for government condemnation.
Televised scenes of the chaos in Hong Kong over the weekend have already made a deep impression on many viewers outside Hong Kong. That was especially the case in Taiwan, which has full democracy but is considered by China as a renegade province that must one day be reunited with the Communist-run mainland.
"Taiwan people are watching this closely," Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
Britain said it was concerned about the situation in Hong Kong and called for the right of protest to be protected.
The U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong issued a statement calling for all sides to "refrain from actions that would further escalate tensions".
China's Hua said Beijing noted statements expressed by countries such as the United States. "We hope that the relevant country will be cautious on this issue and not send the wrong signal," she said.
"We are resolutely opposed to any foreign country using any method to interfere in China's internal affairs. We are also resolutely opposed to any country, attempting in any way to support such illegal activities like 'Occupy Central'."
"We are fully confident in the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, because I believe this is in keeping with the interests of all the people in China, the region and the world," she said.
In 1989, Beijing's Tiananmen crackdown sent shockwaves through Hong Kong as people saw how far China's rulers would go to keep their grip on power.
SOME BANKS PULL DOWN SHUTTERS
Banks in Hong Kong, including HSBC (HSBA.L), Citigroup (C.N), Bank of China (601988.SS), Standard Chartered (STAN.L) and DBS (DBSM.SI), shut some branches and advised staff to work from home or go to secondary branches.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city's de facto central bank, said the city's interbank markets and Currency Board mechanism, which maintains the exchange rate, were not affected by the unrest. It said it stood ready to "inject liquidity into the banking system as and when necessary".
Hong Kong witnessed extraordinary scenes at the weekend as thousands of protesters, some armed with nothing more than umbrellas, blocked the main road into the city and police responded with pepper spray, tear gas and baton charges.
Markets more or less took the weekend's unrest in their stride, proof yet again of the pre-eminent place trade has always taken in Hong Kong. Hong Kong shares .HSI ended down 1.9 percent.
The protests have spooked tourists, with arrivals from China down sharply ahead of this week's National Day holidays. Hong Kong on Monday cancelled the city's fireworks display over the harbour, meant to mark the holiday. The United States, Australia and Singapore issued travel alerts.
SCUFFLES BREAK OUT
Some protesters erected barricades to block security forces early on Monday, although a relative calm descended after dawn. By mid-afternoon, hundreds of protesters were seen streaming again into downtown areas of Hong Kong island. A bus draped with a banner reading "Democracy" was parked across a main road.
People placed discarded umbrellas over students sleeping in the sun, while others distributed water and masks to guard against tear gas and pepper spray.
Hours earlier, police had baton-charged a crowd blocking a road into the main government district in defiance of official warnings that the demonstrations were illegal.
Protesters called on Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying to step down. Several scuffles broke out between police in helmets, gas masks and riot gear, and demonstrators.
"If today I don't stand up, I will hate myself in future," said taxi driver Edward Yeung, 55, as he swore at police. "Even if I get a criminal record it will be a glorious one."
Across Hong Kong's famed Victoria Harbour, smaller numbers of protesters, including some secondary school students, also gathered in the Mong Kok district of Kowloon.
About 200 workers at Swire Beverage, a unit of Hong Kong conglomerate Swire Pacific (0019.HK) and a major bottler for the Coca-Cola Company (KO.N), went on strike in support of the protesters, a union representative said. They also demanded the city's leader step down.
The "one country, two systems" formula guarantees Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, with universal suffrage set as an eventual goal.
However, Beijing last month rejected demands for people to freely choose the city's next leader, prompting threats from activists to shut down the Central business district.
China wants to limit 2017 elections to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing. Communist Party leaders worry that calls for democracy could spread to the mainland.
Sunday 28 September 2014
Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters defiant as police use tear gas
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(Reuters) - Hong Kong police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse pro-democracy protests on Sunday and baton-charged a crowd blocking a key road in the government district in defiance of official warnings against illegal demonstrations.
Chaos had engulfed the city's Admiralty district as chanting protesters converged on police barricades surrounding other demonstrators, who had earlier launched a "new era" of civil disobedience to pressure Beijing into granting full democracy.
Student and pro-democracy leaders late on Sunday urged supporters to retreat due to safety concerns amid speculation police could fire rubber bullets as tensions escalated.
Some supporters peeled away although thousands remained. Chan Kin-man, one of the co-founders of the Occupy Central movement, said its leaders would remain until they got arrested.
Police, in lines five deep in places and wearing helmets and gas masks, used pepper spray against activists and shot tear gas into the air. The crowds fled several hundred yards, scattering their umbrellas and hurling abuse at police "cowards".
The demonstrators regrouped and returned however, and by early evening tens of thousands of protesters were thronging streets, including outside the prominent Pacific Place shopping mall that leads towards the Central financial district.
"If today I don't stand out, I will hate myself in future," said taxi driver Edward Yeung, 55, as he swore at police on the frontline. "Even if I get a criminal record it will be a glorious one."
A former British colony, Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a formula known as "one country, two systems" that guaranteed a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China. Universal suffrage was set as an eventual goal.
But Beijing last month rejected demands for people to freely choose the city's next leader, prompting threats from activists to shut down Central in what is being seen as the most tenacious civil disobedience action since Britain pulled out. China wants to limit elections to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing.
LEADER PLEDGES "RESOLUTE" ACTION
Police in full riot equipment later fired repeated rounds of tear gas to clear some of the roads in Admiralty and pushed the crowds towards Central. Health authorities said some 30 people needed treatment.
Police had not used tear gas in Hong Kong since breaking up protests by South Korean farmers against the World Trade Organization in 2005.
"We will fight until the end ... we will never give up," said Peter Poon, a protester in his 20s, adding that they may have to make a temporary retreat through the night.
Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying had earlier pledged "resolute" action against the protest movement, known as Occupy Central with Love and Peace.
"The police are determined to handle the situation appropriately in accordance with the law," Leung said, less than two hours before the police charge began.
A spokesperson for China's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office added that the central government fully supported Hong Kong's handling of the situation "in accordance with the law".
Communist Party leaders in Beijing are concerned about calls for democracy spreading to cities on the mainland, threatening their grip on power. Such dissent would never be tolerated on the mainland, where student protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square calling for democracy were crushed with heavy loss of life on June 4, 1989.
On the mainland, the phrase "Occupy Central" was blocked on Sunday afternoon on Weibo, China's version of Twitter. It had been allowed earlier in the day.
Later, a Hong Kong government statement urged the Occupy organizers to bring an end to the "chaos" for the overall interest of Hong Kong. The government said some public transport may be disrupted on Monday due to the protests.
A tearful Occupy organizer Benny Tai said he was proud of people's determination to fight for "genuine" universal suffrage, but that the situation was getting out of control, RTHK reported. He said he believed he would face heavy punishment for initiating the movement.
Inside the cordon, thousands had huddled in plastic capes, masks and goggles as they braced for a fresh police attempt to clear the area before Hong Kong re-opens for business in the morning. The city's financial markets are expected to open as usual on Monday.
"WE WILL WIN WITH LOVE AND PEACE"
Publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, a key backer of the democracy movement, said he wanted as big a crowd of protesters as possible, after a week of student demonstrations, to thwart any crackdown.
"The more Hong Kong citizens come, the more unlikely the police can clear up the place," said Lai, also wearing a plastic cape and workmen's protective glasses. "Even if we get beaten up, we cannot fight back. We will win this war with love and peace."
Pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said three fellow legislators were among a small group of activists detained by police, including democratic leaders Albert Ho and Emily Lau.
Organizers said as many as 80,000 people thronged the streets in Admiralty, galvanized by the arrests of student activists on Friday. No independent estimate of the crowd numbers was available.
A week of protests escalated into violence when student-led demonstrators broke through a cordon late on Friday and scaled a fence to invade the city's main government compound. Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd. The Hong Kong Federation of Students extended class boycotts indefinitely.
Police have so far arrested 78 people, including Joshua Wong, the 17-year-old leader of student group Scholarism, who was dragged away after he called on the protesters to charge the government premises.
Wong was released from police detention without charge on Sunday evening, the South China Morning Post reported. He told reporters that he planned to return to the protest site after resting.
Hong Kong Police Use Tear Gas To Clear Protesters
(AP) — Hong Kong police have used tear gas to try to clear a huge crowd of pro-democracy protesters who had gathered outside government headquarters.
Police lobbed canisters of tear gas into the crowd on Sunday evening after spending hours holding the protesters at bay.
The searing fumes from tear gas sent protesters fleeing down the road.
Authorities launched their crackdown after the protest spiraled into an extraordinary scene of chaos as the crowd jammed a busy road and clashed with officers wielding pepper spray.
The protesters were trying tried to reach a mass sit-in being held outside government headquarters to demand Beijing grant genuine democratic reforms to the former British colony.
Saturday 27 September 2014
Rohingya could face detention under Myanmar draft plan
(Reuters) - Myanmar's national government has drafted a plan that will give around a million members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority a bleak choice: accept ethnic reclassification and the prospect of citizenship, or be detained.
Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya already live in apartheid-like conditions in western Rakhine, where deadly clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012 displaced 140,000 people, mostly Rohingya.
The plan, shared with Reuters by sources who have received copies of the draft, proposes Rakhine authorities "construct temporary camps in required numbers for those who refuse to be registered and those without adequate documents".
Many Rohingya lost documents in the widespread violence, or have previously refused to register as "Bengalis", as required by the government under the new plan, because they say the term implies they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
Despite winning praise for political and economic reforms introduced since military rule ended in March 2011, Myanmar has come under international pressure over its treatment of the Rohingya.
The plan says one of its aims is to promote peaceful co-existence and prevent sectarian tension and conflict.
It includes sections on resolving statelessness through a citizenship verification programme, as well as promoting economic development.
But rights advocates say it could potentially put thousands of Rohingya, including those living in long-settled villages, at risk of indefinite detention.
CITIZENSHIP OFFER
The government will offer citizenship for those that accept the classification and have required documentation. That may encourage some to consent to identification as Bengali.
Citizenship would offer some legal protection and rights to those Rohingya who attain it. But an official from Rakhine State who is part of the committee overseeing citizenship verification said even that would not resolve the simmering tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in the state, or prevent a recurrence of the inter-community violence that plagued the country in 2012.
"Practically, even after being given citizenship and resettlement and all that, a Bengali with a citizenship card still won't be able to walk into a Rakhine village," said Tha Pwint, who also serves on the committee that oversees humanitarian affairs in the Rakhine.
The plan was drafted at the request of the national government, said Tha Pwint and three other sources contacted by Reuters about the plan.
Myanmar government spokesman Ye Htut could not be reached for comment on the plan, despite repeated efforts by Reuters to contact him by telephone and email.
STATELESS MINORITY
Many Rohingya families have lived in Rakhine for generations and are part of a small minority in the predominately Buddhist Myanmar.
They are stateless because the government does not recognise the existence of the Rohingya ethnicity, and has to date refused to grant the majority of them citizenship.
Accepting the term Bengali could leave the Rohingya vulnerable should authorities in future attempt to send them to Bangladesh as illegal immigrants, said Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch.
"One of human rights' core principles is the right to determine one's ethnic and social identity and this is precisely what the Myanmar government is doggedly denying the Rohingya," he said.
"So it's no wonder that the Rohingya completely reject the national government's efforts to classify them as 'Bengalis' because they know that is the starting point for an effort to confirm their statelessness and eject them from Myanmar."
The draft plan states that the authorities would request the UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, to "resettle illegal aliens elsewhere". That might leave them facing indefinite detention, Robertson said, as the UNHCR would be unable to assist.
Complying with the government request would be impossible, because the UNHCR only resettles "recognised refugees who have fled persecution and conflict across international borders", said Medea Savary, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Myanmar.
"The group in question does not fall into this category."
Myanmar is preparing to carry out a state-wide citizenship verification process for the Rohingya as part of the plan, a process it recently piloted.
The document says the plan "is a work in progress, with time frames to be adjusted according to the situation on the ground".
Almost all Rohingya were excluded from a United Nations-backed census earlier this year after refusing to list their identities as Bengali.
The Action Plan for Peace, Stability and Development in Rakhine State also says the government will ask international agencies for help in having the "humanitarian needs met in terms of food, shelter, water and sanitation" for Rohingya living inside the new temporary camps.
Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya is proving a stumbling block to the country's opening to the world since a semi-civilian, reformist government led by former general President Thein Sein took over after 49 years of military rule.
In May, U.S. President Barack Obama, who is due to visit Myanmar in November, cited abuses in Rakhine State as one reason for maintaining some economic sanctions.
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