Hong Kong teen protest leader on hunger strike
Associated Press
By KELVIN CHAN 4 hours ago
VIDEO: Wochit Hong Kong Protesters Clash With Police Near Heart of Financial District
HONG KONG (AP) — A prominent Hong Kong teen protest leader said Monday he's going on a hunger strike after a failed attempt by pro-democracy activists to step up their flagging movement for democratic reforms by surrounding government headquarters.
Related Stories
* Hong Kong police arrest student protest leaders Associated Press
* Hong Kong police reopen main road after clearing protest camp AFP
* Hong Kong protesters clash with police near heart of financial district Reuters
* Hong Kong leader says protests 'in vain' after violent clashes AFP
* Hong Kong activists try to storm legislature - Associated Press
Joshua Wong's announcement came after protesters carrying umbrellas - which have become symbols of the pro-democracy movement - battled police armed with pepper spray, batons and riot shields for hours overnight before being driven off a main road outside the complex at dawn.
The government complex was forced to shut temporarily and the city's Beijing-backed leader said public patience was wearing thin, adding that police would "continue to take decisive action to enforce the law."
Student leaders conceded that their attempt to escalate their movement had failed. With options running out, the 18-year-old Wong announced at a rally late Monday that he and two other members of his group would go on an indefinite hunger strike to press demands that the Hong Kong government drop restrictions on inaugural 2017 elections for the city's top leader.
Wong leads Scholarism, one of two student groups that have played key roles organizing the protests that have occupied major streets around the city for two months.
Hundreds of protesters overran police lines Sunday night as they tried to block traffic on a main road, but were stopped by police barricades from going down a side road to Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying's office.
Police officers beat up protesters as they try to disperse them outside government headquarters in Hong Kong Monday, Dec. 1, 2014. Pro-democracy protesters clashed with police as they tried to surround Hong Kong government headquarters late Sunday, stepping up their movement for genuine democratic reforms after camping out on the city's streets for more than two months. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
Pro-democracy protesters clashed with police Monday as they tried to surround Hong Kong government headquarters to revitalize their flagging movement for democratic reforms after camping out on the city's streets for more than two months. Repeating scenes that have become familiar since the movement began in late September, protesters carrying umbrellas — which have become symbols of the pro-democracy movement — battled police armed with pepper spray, batons and riot shields. (AP)
Find more news related pictures on our photo galleries page and follow us on Tumblr.
The protesters, many wearing surgical masks, hard hats and safety goggles and chanting, "I want true democracy," said they wanted to occupy the road to prevent Leung and other government officials from getting to work in the morning.
At one point after midnight, police charged the crowd, aggressively pushing demonstrators back with pepper spray and batons, after some protesters started pelting them with water bottles and other objects. Police later fell back, letting demonstrators re-occupy the road. At dawn, police charged again and cleared the protesters from some areas around the government headquarters.
Police spokesman Steve Hui said 40 protesters had been arrested while 17 officers were injured, but did not give a total injury count.
"Radicals and troublemakers were found in between the crowd who created chaos deliberately," he said.
Protesters said they were taking action to force a response from Hong Kong's government, which has made little effort to address their demands that it scrap a plan by China's Communist leaders to use a panel of Beijing-friendly elites to screen candidates for Hong Kong's leader in inaugural 2017 elections.
Leung told reporters that police patience should not be interpreted as weakness.
"If this can be tolerated, what cannot?" he said.
Hundreds remain entrenched in the main downtown protest site, building tents, work tables and other infrastructure, even as energy has diminished on the streets since the first surge of demonstrations in late September. Numbers typically dwindle in the daytime, with many protesters going to work or school before returning in the evenings.
Authorities last week used an aggressive operation to clear out the protest camp on the busy streets of Hong Kong's crowded Mong Kok district, one of three protest zones around the semiautonomous city. Hui said 12 more people were arrested in the district as they tried to retake the streets.
"The action was aimed at paralyzing the government's operation," said Alex Chow, secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students. But he later told reporters that effort had failed.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Monday reiterated a U.S. call for restraint by authorities and said it would be concerned by any "increase in aggression." She also urged protesters to express their views peacefully.
____
Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.
View Comments (355) and VIDEO:
http://news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-protesters-face-off-police-140742452.html
***
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
02122014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là ĐỒNG LÕA với TỘI ÁC
No comments:
Post a Comment