Police clear some Occupy barricades. Leung: Nothing will change Beijing’s mind
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - Police have launched a number of steps to move the Occupy barricades in the area of Admiralty and Mong Kok. A spokesman said that the police do not want to end the demonstrations, but only ease the traffic in the two areas, the financial and the trade hub, which have been blocked for nearly two weeks.
The protesters took to the streets in a permanent sit-in to demand full
democracy for the territory, with
universal suffrage in elections of the
Chief Executive. Beijing has already determined that all the people of Hong Kong will be able
to vote, but it wants to control the
selection and the number of candidates.
This morning, clearing the barricades,
the police did not use violence, even though they were armed with tear gas bombs.
The police intervened in Mong Kok, where some groups who were masked and armed
with knives attacked the demonstrators. The attack is similar to one that took place about a week ago carried out by a mob infiltrated by the
Chinese mafia. About one hundred students are
still in Admiralty; about 50 in Mong Kok; twenty
in Causeway Bay.
The occupation of these central areas has blocked traffic, work, schools.
The reopening of some lanes today will go
some way to reducing tension. Many people who supported the beginning of the Occupy movement,
now want the sit-in to end and for protesters to find new ways to fight. Others - such as
taxi drivers, bus drivers, truck drivers, shopkeepers - explicitly
express their opposition.
Card. Joseph Zen
also believes it would be more beneficial to end the occupation of the city center at this
point and find other methods to continue the fight now that the
entire population has been sensitized to the value of democracy.
The margins of maneuver are very
tight. The protesters of Occupy have asked countless
times for the resignation of the
chief executive, Leung Chun-ying,
incapable of representing the wishes of the people and held responsible for
the police attacks on defenseless
students.
After stopping the dialogue with the students last week, Leung said yesterday that
he will not resign and that Beijing will not
change its mind on the method of
election. In addition, he has not ruled out the
use of force towards the
protesters. "We've resorted to all kinds of persuasions -
he said -... We absolutely would not prefer clearing the venue, but if one day
the venue has to be cleared, I believe the police will use their professional judgment
and training using minimum amount of force".
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