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 Police said they arrested 45 protesters in the early hours, using
pepper spray on those who resisted, as they cleared a main road in
the Chinese-controlled city that had been barricaded by
pro-democracy demonstrators with concrete slabs.
Several officers appeared to beat and kick a handcuffed protester
for several minutes after dragging him to a dark corner next to the
protest site in footage aired by television broadcaster TVB.
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok told a news
conference police would investigate the suspected use of excessive
force. The officers shown in the video would be temporarily removed
from their positions, Lai added.
Outrage over the beating could galvanize support for the democracy
movement in the former British colony where more than two weeks of
protests over Chinese restrictions on how it chooses its next leader
in 2017 had dwindled from around 100,000 at their peak to a few
hundred.
Alan Leong, leader of Hong Kong's pro-democracy Civic Party,
identified the person in the video as Ken Tsang Kin-chiu and said he
was a member of the party.
Civic Party legislator Dennis Kwok, a lawyer representing Tsang,
said police also beat Tsang inside a police station. Tsang had since
been taken to hospital, Kwok said.
Tsang is also a social worker. The Hong Kong Social Workers'
Association said it planned to march to police HQ in the evening to
protest.
Photographs showing Tsang with bruising on his face and body,
released by democracy activists, sparked anger and condemnation.
Human rights group Amnesty International said the police involved in
what appeared to be a "vicious attack against a detained man" should
face justice.
Police, without referring to Tsang, said in a statement they had
used minimum force, including pepper spray, to disperse protesters
who had gathered illegally overnight.
The operation was the toughest against largely student protesters in
more than a week and came after demonstrators swarmed into a tunnel
on a four-lane thoroughfare late on Tuesday, halting traffic and
chanting for universal suffrage.
"There were so many police. They punched people ... We are
peaceful," Danny Chiu, a student in his 20s, told Reuters, breaking
down in tears.
The tunnel in the Admiralty district near government headquarters
was reopened after police cleared away barriers of concrete slabs.
Protesters have been demanding full democracy for the city. They are
also calling for its pro-Beijing leader, Leung Chun-ying, to step
down.
But their campaign, now into its third week, has caused traffic
chaos and drained public support for their actions.
China rules Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" formula
that accords the city a degree of autonomy and freedom not enjoyed
in mainland China, with universal suffrage an eventual goal.
Beijing said on Aug. 31 that only candidates that get majority
backing from a nominating committee stacked with Beijing loyalists
would be able to contest a full city-wide vote to choose Hong Kong's
next leader.
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'DOOMED TO FAILURE'
China's ruling Communist Party believes it has offered enough
concessions to Hong Kong in the past, and would give no ground
because it wants to avoid setting a precedent for reform on the
mainland, sources told Reuters.
The position was arrived at during a meeting of the new National
Security Commission chaired by President Xi Jinping in the first
week of October, the sources said. The People's Daily, the Chinese
Communist Party's official newspaper, said in a front-page
commentary the protests were "doomed to failure”.
"Numerous facts and history tell us that if people start radical and
illegal acts and there is submission to political blackmail, it will
only result in more and more illegal activities and exacerbate
instability and chaos," the paper said.
Leung said this week there was "zero chance" China's leaders would
give in to protesters' demands and change the August decision
limiting democracy.
A top Chinese official rebuked the self-ruled island of Taiwan on
Wednesday for its "irresponsible" comments on the protests. Taiwan
President Ma Ying-jeou has expressed support for the demonstrators
and urged China to move towards democracy.
On Tuesday, police used chainsaws and sledge-hammers to clear
blockades on another major road in Admiralty, next to the Central
business district.
But hundreds of protesters then stormed into the nearby tunnel,
catching authorities by surprise.
Despite the reopening of the two major roads there was no immediate
sign the core protest zone outside government headquarters, where
hundreds of tents remain pitched on an eight-lane highway, would be
cleared. Protesters are also scattered around other parts of
Admiralty.
Smaller groups remain in the shopping district of Causeway Bay and
across the harbor in the densely populated Mong Kok area.
Police, criticized for using tear gas and batons in the first 24
hours of the protests, had adopted a more patient approach, counting
on protesters to come under public pressure to clear main arteries.
In recent days, police have selectively removed some barriers on the
fringes of protest sites. The police action in the early hours of Wednesday, however, suggests
official patience may be wearing thin.
The number of protesters has fallen off sharply from a peak of about
100,000, but a hardcore group of several thousand remain.
(Additional reporting by Donny Kwok, Yimou Lee, Amanda Lee and Clare
Jim in HONG KONG and Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING;
Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Robert Birsel and Nick Macfie)
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