Police shoot in the air among a crowd, on e wounded. The clashes a symptom of social imbalance
Macao (AsiaNews) – Yesterday’s protest in the former Portuguese colony Macao “show how the local government has given no attention whatsoever to its citizen’s protests, concentrating wholly on economic development instead of social well being: a scourge which also exist on continental China”.
This is the main thrust of Chinese dissident’s comments following the violent anti – government protests which rocked the island yesterday. About 10 thousand workers, marching to mark May 1st in fact accused the governing executive of “favouring economic development over their jobs”.
The police who were patrolling the demonstration, found themselves forced to disperse the crowd, shooting in the air and wildly hitting out at protesters with electric batons. One woman was hit by a bullet, while 21 policemen and a hundred demonstrators were lightly injured.
According to the editor of Hong Kong daily the South China Morning Post, “the profits made by the casinos [principal source of earnings in Macao, known as the Asian Las Vegas ndr] have been centralized by a corrupt administration, which has failed to share the fruits of the financial development with the population. In this way, they have forced the workers to violence”.
The phenomenon “is being carefully watched by the central government. While it appreciates Macao’s loyalty to the Mother Land it has warned the Chief executive Ho Hau-wah: if the deep social problems are not resolved, there will be series consequences for the entire executive
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