Police pledge to support eviction of HK protesters
Print Edition
HONG Kong police will today move to evict some of the protesters who have been blocking main thoroughfares in the city for more than seven weeks, according to a statement issued last night.
Police said they would give their “fullest support” to bailiffs carrying out a court order to clear access to a skyscraper in the Admiralty district.
In the statement they pledged “resolute action” against anyone obstructing the bailiffs, saying they could face charges of contempt of court.
Protesters have since September 28 been staging sit-ins on three major thoroughfares, demanding “open nominations” in the city’s election for chief executive in 2017.
The court order to be enforced today, granted at the request of the building owners, relates only to the area around CITIC Tower in the Admiralty business and government district.
It does not cover the entire area of the sit-in at Admiralty, where demonstrators have pitched a sea of colorful tents across an 8-lane highway.
But similar court orders have been issued or are being sought for other blocked roads in the city, as public opinion turns against the protesters.
For the first time since it began a poll in September, Hong Kong’s Chinese University found more people opposed the Occupy movement than supported it.
Of those surveyed, 67.4 percent of 1,030 Cantonese-speaking residents said protesters should vacate the streets. Public support for the movement was also wavering, with 43.5 percent saying they were against it, compared with 33.9 percent in support.
A police source quoted by the South China Morning Post said roads in the Mongkok district in Kowloon would also be cleared this week.
The protests, which drew well over 100,000 at their peak, have dwindled to hundreds camped out at key intersections on both sides of the harbor.
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