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 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.
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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.
(Additional reporting by Twinnie Siu, Elzio Barreto, Charlie Zhu,
Clare Baldwin, Joseph Campbell, Donny Kwok, James Pomfret, Bobby
Yip, Irene Jay Liu, Farah Master, Diana Chan, Kinling Lo, Venus Wu
and Anne Marie Roantree in HONG KONG, and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING;
Writing by Jeremy Laurence; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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