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Hong Kong braces for more protests as lawmakers go to court
HONG KONG, Oct 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The majority of Hong Kong’s subway
stations remained closed Sunday as the city braced for more protests with
pro-democracy activists vowing to hit the streets and opposition lawmakers
trying to overturn a face mask ban.
Thousands of protesters staged unsanctioned marches and flashmob protests
at multiple locations on Saturday, a day after the city’s leader outlawed
face coverings at protests, invoking colonial-era emergency powers not used
for half a century.
The finance hub has been convulsed by widespread chaos in recent days as
hardcore protesters trashed dozens of subway stations, vandalised shops, set
fires and blocked roads.
Pro-democracy lawmakers are seeking an emergency injunction later Sunday in
a bid to overturn the face mask ban and declare the emergency powers invalid
because they bypass the city’s legislature.
Last deployed in 1967, the powers allow chief executive Carrie Lam to make
“any regulations whatsoever” during a time of public danger.
The move was welcomed by government supporters and Beijing.
But opponents and protesters saw it as the start of a slippery slope
tipping the international finance hub into authoritarianism.
“I would say this is one of the most important constitutional cases in the
history of Hong Kong,” lawmaker Dennis Kwok told reporters outside court on
Sunday.
“This could be the very last constitutional fight on our part. In the name
of law they are trying to hurt the people and they try to crush the
opposition.
“If this emergency law just gets a pass just like that Hong Kong will be
deemed into a very black hole.”
– Two teen protesters shot –
Hong Kong has been battered by four months of huge and increasingly violent
pro-democracy protests.
The rallies were ignited by a now-scrapped plan to allow extraditions to
the mainland, which fuelled fears of an erosion of liberties promised under
the 50-year “one country, two systems” model China agreed ahead of the 1997
handover by Britain.
After Beijing and local leaders took a hard line, the demonstrations
snowballed into a wider movement calling for more democratic freedoms and
police accountability. Lam has refused major concessions but struggled to
come up with any political solution, leaving police and demonstrators to
fight increasingly violent battles as the city tips into recession.
The worst clashes to date erupted on Tuesday as China celebrated 70 years
of Communist Party rule, with a teenager shot and wounded by police as he
attacked an officer.
MORE/MSY/0852 hrs
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A 14-year-old boy was then shot and wounded on Friday night when a
plainclothes police officer who was surrounded by a mob of protesters
throwing petrol bombs fired his sidearm. That night masked protesters went on
a rampage in dozens of locations, trashing subway stations and businesses
with mainland China ties.
The city’s subway system — which carries four million people daily — was
shut down entirely on Friday night and throughout Saturday, bringing much of
the metropolis to a halt.
Major supermarket chains and malls announced they were closing leading to
long lines and panic buying as residents stocked up on essentials.
Thousands of masked protesters still came out onto the streets throughout
Saturday despite the mask ban and transport gridlock, although the crowds
were smaller than recent rallies.
– Subway partially reopens –
On Sunday, the subway operator said 45 stations would open but 48 remained
shuttered, many of them in the heart of the city’s main tourist districts as
well as those neighbourhoods areas hit hardest by the protests and vandalism.
Online forums used by the largely leaderless protest movement to organise
were encouraging protesters to hold an unsanctioned rally in the city’s
Victoria Park later Sunday.
But with most of the stations in that area of the city closed it was
unclear if they would be able to muster decent numbers.
Lam has defended her use of the emergency powers and says she is willing to
make more executive orders if the violence continues.
“We cannot allow rioters any more to destroy our treasured Hong Kong,” Lam
said in a stony-faced video statement on Saturday.
But protesters have vowed to keep hitting the streets.
“The anti-face mask law is the first step,” Hosun Lee, a protester in
Causeway Bay, told AFP, saying he feared more laws under the emergency order
were on the way.
Protester demands include an independent inquiry into the police, an
amnesty for the more than 2,000 people arrested and universal suffrage — all
requests rejected by Lam and Beijing.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0852 hrs