Hunger strikers’ call rejected
Print Edition
THE founders of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central movement surrendered to police yesterday, as they tried to take the protests off the streets after more than two months of rallies punctuated by violence.
Anti-Occupy groups taunted professors Benny Tai and Chan Kin-man, and pastor Chu Yiu-ming as they entered a police station just two subway stops from the main protest site in Admiralty, next to the city’s financial center, while dozens of supporters surrounded the trio as they turned themselves in.
The three, accompanied by Cardinal Joseph Zen, 82, former Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong, filled in forms with their personal information, and were allowed to leave without facing any charges. Zen, an Occupy supporter, also gave himself up.
They said they had not been arrested despite admitting “participating in unauthorised assembly.”
“We have not been arrested so we are allowed to leave with no restriction on our liberty,” said Tai.
About 40 other supporters waiting outside the police station also queued up to fill out forms turning themselves in.
Police said that 24 people had surrendered so far.
“They were explicitly told by the interviewing officers that illegal occupation of public places was an unlawful act and they should stop such act immediately,” a statement said.
“Police will conduct follow-up investigations based on the information provided.”
Anti-Occupy demonstrators outside the police station swore and held up placards of the three Occupy founders in striped jail uniforms.
“Support the government to enforce the law!” they shouted.
The Occupy founders call for students to pull back came a day after clashes between police and protesters in Admiralty after demonstrators tried to surround government headquarters.
Police charged into the protesters, raining down truncheon blows and squirting jets of an incapacitating spray.
Protesters began blocking three major intersections in late September in protest over the city’s 2017 leadership election. One has since been cleared by police.
China’s top legislature has said that candidates for the 2017 leadership vote must be nominated by a panel.
Hong Kong’s current leader Leung Chun-ying yesterday rejected a call made by three students on hunger strike, for the constitutional reform process to be re-launched.
Leung’s office said in a statement there was no legal way to restart the process.
“Expressing views on constitutional reform through illegal and confrontational means is bound to be futile,” it added.
The Party’s flagship newspaper also condemned the protest. “Illegal demands cannot be granted, especially those expressed by illegal and extreme methods,” the overseas edition of the People’s Daily said.
Despite the Occupy call to retreat, a small group remains camped out in the busy shopping district of Causeway Bay, but hte bulk are in Admiralty.
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