Protest leaders to surrender
Print Edition
THREE founders of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central movement said yesterday that they would surrender to police today to take responsibility for the protests that have shut down parts of the Asian financial center for more than two months.
Professors Benny Tai Yiu-ting and Chan Kin-man and Pastor Chu Yiu-ming also called for an end to street demonstrations to prevent more violence.
“As we prepare to surrender, we three urge the students to retreat,” they said.
The trio said they had taken part in gatherings at occupied areas and that their actions may have constituted a crime.
Tai said it wasn’t clear whether police would simply send them home or detain them for inciting the protests.
While the trio’s call to end the action threatened to fracture the movement, Tai denied any suggestions that they were abandoning the demonstrators.
Hundreds remain entrenched in the main downtown protest site, even as energy has diminished on the streets since the first surge of demonstrations in late September.
Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong’s busiest areas since September 28 have disrupted traffic, hit tourism, closed schools and banks for a time, and caused a slump in trading at the local stock market.
There have also been a series of clashes between protesters and police, with one of the worst scuffles on Sunday when protesters stormed police lines and blocked access to central government offices in Admiralty district.
In the early hours of Monday, police armed with pepper spray, batons and riot shields clashed with protesters as authorities moved to clear them from an area in front of the Hong Kong government complex where protesters had been camped out.
The compound was forced to shut temporarily and Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said public patience was wearing thin, adding that police would “continue to take decisive action to enforce the law.”
He noted that over the past two months, blockades of roads had dented Hong Kong’s international image and damaged the local economy.
Chaotic scenes had also raised concerns among the public.
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