Hong Kong police turn away Occupy movement founders

2014-12-03

Three organizers of Hong Kong's Occupy Central nonviolent, pro-democracy movement were not arrested when they surrendered themselves to police on Wednesday in a bid to end street protests that have shut down parts of the semi-autonomous city for more than two months.

(L-R) Occupy Central organizers Chu Yiu-ming, Benny Tai and Chan Kin-man along with former bishop of Hong Kong Joseph Zen leave a police station in Hong Kong, Dec. 3, 2014. AFP

Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) founders professors Benny Tai Yiu-ting and Chan Kin-man and pastor Chu Yiu-ming symbolically turned themselves in for "participating in an unauthorized assembly" to protest Beijing's refusal to allow a free vote for electing Hong Kong's next leader in 2017.

"I heard very clearly from the police that we have not been arrested, so we are allowed to leave without restriction," Tai told the media outside the police station. "They handled our cases quite fast."

He also said he did not know if the trio would be prosecuted for other or additional offenses and that police indicated they would notify them if they wanted them to return to the station.

Former Hong Kong bishop Joseph Zen and dozens of supporters also turned themselves in.

"I took part in the campaign to express my disappointment with the government," a protestor surnamed Chen who was waiting to surrender outside the police station told RFA. "But because the occupy action was so unlawful, I'm surrendering today. But the protest was the only way we could express our anger."

The occupy movement was "the most peaceful way to fight for universal suffrage," Chen said.

"Now the surrender will wake up more people to fight for real democracy," he said.

Another protestor who wanted to surrender to police, but did not give his name, told RFA: "I feel I have a duty to go to the court to make our positions even clearer to all – why Hong Kong people deserve the civil rights and true universal suffrage they want."

A social worker who only gave his name as Kenneth and was outside the police station to support Tai and the others told RFA: "Civilian disobedience has come to this moment and the last step – to surrender to the police so as to take responsibility.

That's why I came here. I think we should move our battlefield to other areas, including writing down the [movement's] work to let many people know and understand [it]."

Wu Yisan, A Hong Kong-based commentator said both the Beijing and Hong Kong governments were the big losers in the protest.

"Students and citizens in Hong Kong held out for more than two months of peaceful protests, which greatly impacted the world. [But] the Beijing and Hong Kong governments clumsily handled the umbrella movement. They lost."

US diplomat's call

In the meantime, a top U.S. diplomat for Asia called on China to ensure that multiple candidates would be allowed to run freely in the 2017 elections in Hong Kong.

Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, urged Beijing, the Hong Kong government, and citizens to "work together to advance Hong Kong's democratic development, establish universal suffrage by 2017, and preserve Hong Kong's autonomy and its free and open society."

"This means allowing for a competitive election in which a range of candidates with differing policy approaches are given an opportunity to seek the support of eligible Hong Kong voters," he said in a testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.

China's communist leaders decided on Aug. 31 to limit the number of candidates running for chief executive to two or three and required that nominees be endorsed by a majority of the nominating committee.

Despite the surrender of the three founders of the Occupy movement to police, student leaders of the protests – also called the umbrella movement – said earlier this week that they would regroup.

Tai had urged them to retreat in light of authorities' recent attacks on them.

The student leaders also began a hunger strike in a bid to pressure Beijing into allowing full democracy for the city after thousands of pro-democracy activists forced a temporary closure of the government headquarters following clashes with police.

Police used pepper spray and batons on students trying to storm government headquarters last Sunday in some of the worst violence since the rallies began in September.

Tai, Chan and Chu founded the Occupy Central movement in early 2013 to push for political reforms in Hong Kong, but were overshadowed by radical student leaders who stepped to the forefront of the pro-democracy protests.

Reported by RFA's Cantonese and Mandarin services. Translated by Shiny Li and Ping Chen. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Link to original story on RFA website