Hong Kong democracy rally organisers arrested
5 July ALJAZEERA
Hong Kong police have arrested the organisers of the biggest
pro-democracy rally since the city was handed back to China, sparking
outrage from campaigners who denounced the arrests as “political
suppression”.
Five members of the Civil Human Rights Front, including its convener,
were arrested on Friday three days after the march, which the group said
mobilised half a million people to voice anger at Beijing's
ever-tightening grip on Hong Kong.They are making arrests even though we
have had such a peaceful procession,” the group's convener Johnson Yeung
said after two of his colleagues were picked from their homes on Friday
morning.This isn't about any one reason, this is about political
suppression,” he said before surrendering to police with two others from
the group.
Police did not immediately comment on the arrests.But the group's
vice convener, Icarus Wong, told AFP that they were arrested on
frivolous charges including “obstruction of police duties” during the
largely peaceful rally.Police hauled activists, many lying on the ground
with their arms chained to each other, onto coaches that took them to a
temporary detention centre. All protesters have since been
released.Discontent in Hong Kong is at its highest level in years over
Beijing's insistence that it vet candidates before a vote in 2017 for
the city's next leader.
Pro-democracy group Occupy Central has said it will stage a mass
sit-in later this year unless authorities come up with acceptable
electoral reforms.Hong Kong enjoys liberties not seen on the mainland,
including free speech and the right to protest, but there are heightened
fears that those freedoms are being eroded.Meanwhile, China's top
newspaper on Friday dismissed fears that the autonomy of the former
British colony was being eroded, saying Beijing's policy had not and
would not change, following the rally.In a front page commentary the
People's Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party,
said the white paper was proof that China was committed to Hong Kong's
high degree of autonomy.Some people think that the white paper deviated
from the basic policy the centre [of the party] first proposed, and
others worry about whether the centre will squeeze Hong Kong's high
degree of autonomy,” it wrote.This is all totally baseless. |