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Massive Hong Kong Rally Ends in Police Clashes

Massive Hong Kong Rally Ends in Police Clashes
folder_openAsia-Pacific... access_time4 years ago
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By Staff, Agencies

A huge New Year's Day rally in Hong Kong ended with clashes between police and hardcore protesters, as demonstrators sought to carry their movement's momentum into 2020.

Hong Kong has been battered by nearly seven months of unrest – its biggest political crisis in decades – which has seen millions come out on the streets demanding greater democratic freedoms.

Organizers claimed more than a million people gathered for Wednesday's rally, which had approval from the authorities, and marched across the international financial hub's main island in an attempt to put pressure on the government to meet their demands.

But after a peaceful start, violence erupted near the march within hours, with police and masked protesters facing off in several neighborhoods on the city's main island.

The Civil Human Rights Front, the umbrella group which organized the march, said authorities ordered them to end it after the clashes began.

"We believe the total turnout for today's march has surpassed the 1.03 million on June 9," the group announced, referring to the massive rally last year that kicked off the protest movement in earnest.

In now-familiar scenes, riot police used pepper spray, tear gas and water cannon, while hardcore protesters lobbed petrol bombs, built makeshift barricades and vandalized businesses they consider pro-Beijing – including Starbucks and branches of the HSBC bank.

The Wednesday clashes were, however, small compared with some of the chaos witnessed in the city in recent months.

As darkness fell, journalists saw police surround and detain around 100 protesters. The police department did not immediately confirm the number of arrests.

The unrest in Hong Kong was sparked last year by a proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China. It has since morphed into a larger revolt against what many fear is Beijing's tightening control over the semi-autonomous city.

Despite the continued unrest, China and the Hong Kong administration have refused to accede to the protesters' demands, which include fully free elections in the city, an inquiry into alleged police misconduct, and amnesty for the nearly 6,500 people arrested during the movement – nearly a third of them under the age of 20.

"It is sad that our demands from 2019 need to be carried forward to 2020," the CHRF's Jimmy Sham said at the start of the rally.

Activists have accused the police of brutality and rights violations, while city authorities – and the central government in Beijing – have accused pro-democracy protesters of rioting.

China has also alleged that the unrest has been fanned by foreign powers, and has bristled at criticism from rights groups and governments of the way the protests have been handled so far.

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