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Protest Camps in Hong Kong Come Under Assault Protest Camps in Hong Kong Come Under Assault
(about 4 hours later)
HONG KONG — Pro-democracy protesters in two crowded Hong Kong neighborhoods came under assault on Friday from men who tore down their encampments and attacked the protesters. HONG KONG — Pro-democracy demonstrations in two of Hong Kong’s most crowded shopping districts came under attack on Friday from unidentified men who assaulted protesters and tore down their encampments, as the Beijing-backed government sent sharply conflicting messages about how to grapple with the unrest.
The protesters said the attackers were pro-government gangs, and several of the groups leading the protest threatened to call off planned negotiations with the government “if the government does not immediately prevent the organized attacks.” The protesters said the attackers were pro-government gangs, and several protest groups called off planned negotiations with the government in response. Whoever the culprits were, and by Saturday morning it was still unclear, they drew crowds of angry supporters, neighbors fed up with the inconvenience of the protests and happy to see gangs step in where the police refused to go.
A week after the pro-democracy protests started at a student rally, the movement showed increasing strains on Friday from both external blows and from internal discord and exhaustion, even before the attacks began. The sit-ins on major roads still drew thousands, but appeared diminished as the city returned to work after a two-day holiday. A week after the protests began with a student rally, both the pro-democracy movement and the government were showing increasing signs of wear and desperation, each improvising its next moves like chess players in the face of dwindling options.
Then in the afternoon, bitter skirmishing broke out between protesters and men who tried to remove them and their makeshift shelters. It began in the Mong Kok neighborhood, a hive of shops, apartment blocks and hotels that is one of the world’s mostly densely populated places. The protest movement, fighting to remain relevant, was suffering from internal discord and exhaustion even before the attacks began. The sit-ins on major roads across this financial capital still drew thousands on Friday night, but the crowds were diminished as the city returned to work after a two-day holiday.
As skies darkened and rain fell, a couple of dozen men stormed the encampment in a major thoroughfare usually packed with traffic and shoppers. The men pushed and pummeled the protesters, grabbed the scaffolding of canopies and pulled them until the tents collapsed in heaps. The Beijing-backed government, meanwhile, continued to deploy one contradictory strategy after the next, sending in riot police officers with tear gas one day, pulling them back the next, refusing in principle to talk to protesters then calling for talks, announcing a plan to wait out the protests then appearing to sit on its hands as the protesters were attacked.
The new elements injected on Friday were the gangs of attackers, who entered the fray a day after the Communist Party warned that there would be “chaos” in Hong Kong if the protests did not end.
The skirmishing opened in the Mong Kok neighborhood, a hive of shops, apartment blocks and hotels that is one of the world’s mostly densely populated places, and quickly turned ugly. As skies darkened and rain fell, a couple of dozen men stormed a protest encampment in the middle of a major thoroughfare usually packed with traffic and shoppers.
They shoved and punched protesters, sometimes kicking them after they fell to the ground. Others grabbed the scaffolding of canopies and pulled them down until the tents collapsed in heaps. Residents said the police were outnumbered and slow to react, and hours passed before reinforcements arrived to protect the protesters from a jeering, hostile crowd.
Some threw cans and plastic bottles at the protesters; others spit at them. One protester was led away bleeding from his head as angry residents pressed forward, hurling insults and threats. Another was rushed out on a stretcher, an oxygen mask on his face. Several protesters said the attackers groped and sexually harassed female protesters, and Amnesty International alleged that police officers watched and did nothing.
As fistfights broke out, onlookers snapped photos and the crowds cheered. “I will use a knife!” one protester shouted at one of the men who attacked the encampment. “Get out of here!”
One of the attackers, Jones Lam, a 63-year-old retiree, said his motive was simple.One of the attackers, Jones Lam, a 63-year-old retiree, said his motive was simple.
“They blocked the road,” he said of the protesters. “They blocked the people going to work.”“They blocked the road,” he said of the protesters. “They blocked the people going to work.”
Brawls also broke out at another protest encampment, in the busy shopping district of Causeway Bay, as tourists hustled by clutching shopping bags.Brawls also broke out at another protest encampment, in the busy shopping district of Causeway Bay, as tourists hustled by clutching shopping bags.
“We began to see radicalists, some I suspected paid, to stir up trouble here,” said Eva Sze, a volunteer at the site. “We began to see radicalists, some I suspected paid to stir up trouble here,” said Eva Sze, a volunteer at the site.
After nearly a week in which the tens of thousands of protesters who have taken over parts of the city were, for the most part, not only nonviolent but assiduously polite and clean, the attacks came as a shock.After nearly a week in which the tens of thousands of protesters who have taken over parts of the city were, for the most part, not only nonviolent but assiduously polite and clean, the attacks came as a shock.
“I feel really hurt,” said one of the protesters, Nick Tse, 22, an art student. “We worked so hard for this, and they destroyed it.” “I feel really hurt,” said Nick Tse, 22, an art student. “We worked so hard for this, and they destroyed it.”
Ng Cham-hung, a 30-year-old university research assistant, was shocked. “We’re rational, we’re disciplined,” he said. “But those pro-government people are attacking us. You can see it with your own eyes.” But if the violence was intended to intimidate the protesters, it did not entirely succeed. Several protest leaders urged the demonstrators to leave Mong Kok but they refused, instead joining arms and forming human chains, and as news of the attacks spread, waves of supporters joined them. By late evening, thousands of protesters were standing together in the streets.
The mayhem appeared to have derailed proposed talks between the Hong Kong government and student protesters, who have demanded democratic elections for the city’s leader. The Hong Kong Federation of Students, the main organization of university students, said Friday night that it would not participate in the talks, and blamed the government for the violence. The mayhem derailed proposed talks between the Hong Kong government and student protesters, who are demanding democratic elections for the city’s leader, the chief executive. The Hong Kong Federation of Students and one of the main protest groups, Occupy Central With Love and Peace, said Friday night that they would not participate in the talks, and blamed the government for the violence.
“Yesterday the government stated it was willing to hold a dialogue with students,” said an emailed statement from the federation. “Today, it has gone broken its promise to the people, broken faith and without justification cracked down on the Occupy movement, treating the people as enemies.” “Yesterday the government stated it was willing to hold a dialogue with students,” the federation said in a statement. “Today, it has broken its promise to the people, broken faith and without justification cracked down on the Occupy movement, treating the people as enemies.”
Protesters raised questions about the lack of police in both areas that came under attack, accusing the authorities of allowing the attacks to occur. Protesters and opposition politicians questioned the minimal police presence in both areas that were attacked.
“If the government tolerates and allows body attacks and assaults on personal safety by the so-called patriotic groups, that would be the beginning of riots and chaos,” Cyd Ho Sau-lan, a representative of the pro-democratic Labor Party in the city’s legislature, said in an interview Friday evening. “If the government tolerates and allows body attacks and assaults on personal safety by the so-called patriotic groups, that would be the beginning of riots and chaos,” said Cyd Ho Sau-lan, a representative of the pro-democracy Labor Party in the city’s legislature.
The government said the violence was good reason for the entire protest movement to end its sit-ins across the city. The police issued a statement urging calm from both sides, and said people should leave the areas of confrontation as soon as possible. The government denied abetting the violence, but said it was a good reason for the entire protest movement to end its sit-ins across the city.
The Mong Kok area is notorious for organized gangs known as triads that extort payments from the many small businesses there, or in some cases own the businesses. Some of the protesters suggested that the attackers were connected to them. Leung Chun-ying, the chief executive, issued an appeal for a return to peaceful order, and urged residents to disperse from the tense streets, especially schoolchildren.
“I appeal to them to leave immediately,” he said in a written statement. “I have absolutely no wish any residents, especially young people, injured in clashes.”
The Mong Kok area, where the violence first broke out, is notorious for organized gangs known as triads that extort payments from the many small businesses there, or in some cases own the businesses. Some of the protesters suggested that the attackers were connected to them.
Asked if he was a member of such a group, one man who was tearing down the tents, Steve Lin, 48, said, “I’m not a triad. I’m a Hong Konger.”Asked if he was a member of such a group, one man who was tearing down the tents, Steve Lin, 48, said, “I’m not a triad. I’m a Hong Konger.”
The surrounded protesters linked arms in an effort to protect their tents and barricades, while the police struggled in vain to control the mayhem but in insufficient numbers to keep the two sides apart. If the attackers were triad members, it would not be the first time the Chinese underworld gangs have been used for political ends. The February stabbing of Kevin Lau, who had recently been deposed as editor of a hard-hitting Hong Kong newspaper, bore the hallmarks of a triad operation, and several of those arrested in the case were said to have triad connections.
Several protesters said the attackers groped and sexually harrassed female protesters. In Taiwan, a reputed former leader of the Bamboo Union triad, Chang An-lo, who is also known as White Wolf, leads a pro-China political party.
Naseem Khan, a 21-year-old student at the University of Hong Kong, said he worried that the confrontation signaled that the protests were losing public support. “It’s starting to affect others to the point they can’t tolerate it,” he said. The attackers drew their own crowds of supporters, nearby residents and shopkeepers annoyed by a week of disrupted transportation and rowdy crowds.
Indeed, some residents and shopkeepers in the two neighborhoods where protesters were attacked had voiced growing irritation with disrupted transportation and rowdy crowds, and some of them cheered on the break-up of the camps. But the groups of men who stormed the two sites came abruptly and in force, and on two sides of Victoria Harbor at about the same time, leaving many in the pro-democracy camp convinced that the assaults were not just spontaneous initiatives by local residents.
In Causeway Bay, a woman who was upset about streets blocked off with metal barricades begged the protesters to leave. “Please stop,” she told a crowd of about 50. “I just want to comfortably walk the streets, to visit my friends, to take care of my family.” The biggest road occupations, near the government headquarters and the legislature, remained in place Friday, and many hundreds of activists maintained their siege of Mr. Leung’s office. The demonstrators have demanded that he resign and that his successors be democratically elected, without prior vetting of the candidates by Beijing.
But the groups of men who stormed the two sites came abruptly and in force, and on two sides of Victoria Harbor at about the same time, leaving many in the pro-democracy camp convinced that the assaults were not just spontaneous initiatives by nearby residents. The Chinese Communist Party has rejected those demands. Leaders in Beijing fear that giving democratic power to Hong Kong, a former British colony, would make maintaining control there even harder and could encourage other groups elsewhere to demand similar rights.
The biggest road occupations, near the government headquarters and the legislature, remained in place Friday, and many hundreds of activists maintained their siege of the office of the city leader, or chief executive, Leung Chun-ying. The demonstrators have demanded that he resign and that his successors be democratically elected, without prior vetting of the candidates by Beijing. But the protesters have quarreled over tactics, and on Friday morning they debated fiercely whether to let trucks and ambulances past their blockade, with some elements convinced the ambulances were a trick.
The Chinese Communist Party has adamantly rejected both of those demands and warned that Hong Kong could tumble into chaos if the protests continued. Leaders in Beijing fear that giving democratic power to Hong Kong, a former British colony, would make maintaining control there even harder. The protesters mostly agree on two demands: open democratic elections for the chief executive, and Mr. Leung’s removal. But in the last two days, the main protest groups and crowds on the streets have disagreed over how to press those demands and whether to adopt more confrontational methods.
“We want to impose enough pressure to make C. Y. Leung respond to the voice of the people,” said George Wong, a 31-year-old conceptual artist who was among those holding a sit-in that prevented Mr. Leung on Friday from using his office, which sits in a government complex beside Victoria Harbor. “This movement doesn’t have an actual leader,” said Benny Tai, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong who co-founded Occupy Central With Love and Peace. “But it’s not without direction, not without a goal, and there are ways to handle the different views of the movement’s participants.”
But the protesters have quarreled over tactics, and on Friday morning they debated fiercely whether to let trucks and ambulances past their blockade.
“The more radical groups are suspicious and think the government is trying to trick us,” Mr. Wong said. “This continuous tension, it’s the immediate consequence of having no leaders.”
“At present, the status quo is confusion,” said Albert Ho, a prominent pro-democracy lawyer who is a member of the city’s Legislative Council and the Democratic Party. “I would say that we are still trying to find a strategy to sustain the movement and to preserve peace.”
Emily Lau, the chairwoman of Democratic Party, said in an interview that it was time for Hong Kong’s tycoons, with their deep business and political ties in China, to speak up and help broker concessions that could end the impasse.
“If you want the general public to climb down and accept nothing, I think it’s very difficult,” she said. “Some of the people that I think should be and could be influential, I think they should do something, and I am referring to the political and business elites in Hong Kong, especially the business community. These are the only ones that Beijing will listen to.”
The Chinese Communist Party has long been a firm friend of Hong Kong’s capitalist elite, seen by Beijing as a dependable bulwark against populist pressures. So far, there has been no effort on their part to try to push the government to compromise on election issues or to ask the chief executive to resign.
Many if not most of the city’s tycoons, however, were out of town this past week on vacations, taking advantage of a week with two consecutive days of public holidays.
The protesters mostly agree on two demands: open democratic elections for the chief executive, and removing Mr. Leung, even if his successor turns out to be another pro-Beijing politician. But in the last two days, the main protest groups and crowds on the streets have disagreed over how to press those demands and whether to adopt more confrontational methods.
“This movement doesn’t have an actual leader,” said Benny Tai, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong who co-founded the main pro-democracy group, Occupy Central With Love and Peace. “But it’s not without direction, not without a goal, and there are ways to handle the different views of the movement’s participants.”
“I hope everybody can persist in the spirit of peaceful resistance,” he added.“I hope everybody can persist in the spirit of peaceful resistance,” he added.
That may be unlikely if a Communist Party commentary to be published in People’s Daily on Saturday is as prescient as the one on Thursday that warned of chaos. The new commentary said the mayhem unleashed by the protesters “could lead to deaths and injuries and other grave consequences.”