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Clashes at latest Hong Kong anti-extradition march
HONG KONG, July 14, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Police and protesters clashed again
in Hong Kong Sunday as unrest caused by a widely-loathed plan to allow
extraditions to mainland China showed no sign of abating.
Police used pepper spray and batons against small groups of protesters who
took over a road on the sidelines of another huge rally in Sha Tin, a
district that lies between the main urban sprawl around the harbour and the
Chinese border.
Masked protesters responded by building barricades from metal fencing and
a stand-off with riot police ensued.
Hong Kong has been rocked by more than a month of huge largely peaceful
protests — as well as a series of separate violent confrontations with
police — sparked by a law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland
China and other countries.
Last month, parliament was trashed by hundreds of masked, youth-led
protesters in unprecedented scenes.
The bill has since been postponed, but that has done little to quell
public anger which has evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic
reforms, universal suffrage and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-
autonomous hub. Protesters are also demanding the bill be scrapped entirely,
an independent inquiry into police use of tear gas and rubber bullets, an
amnesty for those arrested, and for the city’s unelected leader Carrie Lam to
step down.
Tens of thousands marched through Sha Tin on Sunday, the fifth week in a
row that Hong Kong has seen such huge rallies.
Almost all have ended with violence between police and a minority of
hardcore protesters.
“We have marched so many times but the government still didn’t listen,
forcing everyone to take to the street,” Tony Wong, a 24-year-old protester
on the Sha Tin march, told AFP.
Many protesters see the rallies as part of an existential fight against an
increasingly assertive Beijing.
“This is a dangerous moment. Hong Kongers can choose to die or they can
live. We’re on the edge but fortunately we haven’t died off yet,” said JoJo
So, a woman in her fifties who was attending the rally.
Beijing has thrown its full support behind Lam, calling on Hong Kong
police to pursue anyone involved in the parliament storming and other
clashes.
Under the 1997 handover deal with the British, China promised to allow
Hong Kong to keep key liberties such as its independent judiciary and rights
like freedom of speech.
But many say that 50-year deal is already being reneged on, citing the
disappearance into mainland custody of dissident booksellers, the
disqualification of prominent politicians and the jailing of democracy
protest leaders.
Authorities have also resisted calls for the city’s leader to be directly
elected by the people.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1710 hrs