[The huge turnout, estimated by organizers at around 350,000 and including families, children and the elderly, showed that the movement maintains widespread support in the face of the increasingly violent tactics of protesters and the escalating use of force by police.]
By Shibani Mahtani, Ryan Ho Kilpatrick and Timothy McLaughlin
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A
journalist photographs police spraying blue dye from a water cannon in
Hong
Kong on Sunday. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)
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HONG
KONG — Hundreds of thousands
of pro-democracy protesters returned to the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday,
defying a ban on assembly before being violently dispersed by police tear gas
and a water cannon.
A police water cannon filled with stinging
blue dye blasted protesters along a major thoroughfare in Kowloon. It also hit
a small group standing guard outside a mosque — an important spiritual nexus
for the city’s largely South Asian Muslim community — leaving bystanders
choking and vomiting and eliciting a rare apology from authorities.
Protesters vandalized businesses viewed as
supporting Beijing, threw molotov cocktails at police stations, set barricades
on fire and smashed up subway stations in chaotic scenes that have become
familiar to the city after five months of sustained protest.
The huge turnout, estimated by organizers at
around 350,000 and including families, children and the elderly, showed that
the movement maintains widespread support in the face of the increasingly
violent tactics of protesters and the escalating use of force by police.
Marchers made a sea of colored umbrellas
through the narrow streets of the city’s Kowloon area, which are lined with
malls and international hotels. Some waved Catalonian flags in solidarity with
the independence protests in that region of Spain.
In contrast to previous demonstrations,
tensions escalated quickly, with clashes erupting long before sunset. By late
afternoon, protesters were throwing molotov cocktails and bricks at police
stations.
In a show of their increasing sophistication,
protesters also produced power tools to drill metal railings into road surfaces
for sturdier barricades to hold back police.
Hong Kong authorities said protester violence
has been escalating. In a statement released just after midnight, the
government said police had intercepted a vehicle “with a large number of petrol
bombs,” and “suspected explosive items” were found around the city. There were
no reports that any explosives were detonated.
“Members of the public should not fall foul
of the law by participating in unauthorised processions and assemblies in order
not to give rioters the chance to commit crimes,” the government said.
The months of protests began in opposition to
a bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China. The Hong Kong
government said the legislation, since withdrawn, was in response to a brutal
murder of a young Hong Kong woman by her boyfriend in Taiwan. He has since
voluntarily surrendered to Taiwanese authorities, despite the lack of the
extradition treaty.
Apple pulls police-tracking app used by Hong
Kong protesters
Protests have swelled into a comprehensive
rejection of Hong Kong’s leaders, who many say act only in Beijing’s interest,
and revived a demand for direct elections in the semiautonomous territory.
“We don’t care whether they will approve the
march or not. Our fight for justice in the face of tyranny goes on anyway,”
said Victor, 24, who returned to his home city from New Zealand to participate
in the protest. “The movement is spreading everywhere, all around the world.”
Sunday’s protest came days after the leader of
the Civil Human Rights Front, Jimmy Sham, was attacked by a group of men
wielding hammers in the Mong Kok neighborhood.
The beating left Sham, who is contesting a
seat in next month’s local elections, splayed on the street and covered in
blood. It was the second time in recent months that he had been targeted. He
was released from the hospital on Sunday but will continue to need medical
treatment and physical therapy.
“The message was clear that someone or some
forces behind the scenes are trying to threaten protest organizers and
democracy activists,” said Eric Lai, vice convener of the Civil Human Rights
Front. “We cannot identify who was behind the attacks, but the objective is to
create a chilling effect on those who are making demands for justice.”
The CHRF, founded in September 2002 in
opposition to proposed national security legislation, is an umbrella
organization made up of several civil society groups. While the protest
movement has remained leaderless and largely decentralized, the group has
played a major role in organizing the largest marches.
Online rumors that Sham’s attackers appeared
to be South Asian prompted fears that ethnic minorities could be targeted for
reprisal. In response, protesters called for greater outreach to non-Chinese
Hong Kongers and to remain vigilant against attempts to incite violence against
them.
Volunteers, minorities, protesters and others
stood at the gate to the Kowloon Mosque during the protest, holding signs
pleading for people not to attack any ethnic minority people or buildings.
While some handed out supplies, others led chants, and passing marchers loudly
cheered them on.
But only a few hours later, a police truck
unleashed a cascade of blue water at the mosque, hitting the people who had
been guarding it. The blue dye is used to identify demonstrators.
Passersby were left choking and vomiting, and
the steps of the mosque were stained blue. Phillip Khan, a prominent
businessman in the Muslim community standing outside the mosque, called the act
an “insult to Islam.”
“It is ridiculous. The police just went mad,”
said Jeremy Tam, a pro-democracy lawmaker, his pants and shoes soaked blue and
his eyes bloodshot. “We came here to protect the mosque against protesters, but
it was the police that did this.
“Why make such a scene when it was just
peaceful?”
Nawaz, a 36-year-old Pakistani man who has
lived in Hong Kong for 25 years, emerged to see the blue-stained road after the
cannon had sped past.
“I have such a bad feeling seeing this,” he
said. “This is our religion. How can they do this? Only the police are giving
us pressure, not the protesters.” Like others, he declined to give his family
name for fear of backlash from authorities.
Police said in a statement later that the
mosque was “accidentally affected” and they had “immediately contacted” the
chief imam and Muslim community leaders to “clarify the situation and to show”
concern.
On Monday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam and
representatives from the police department toured the mosque. Both Lam and the
police department have extended rare apologies for what they say was the
“inadvertent” spraying of the mosque during the police operation.
“We certainly respect religious freedom in
Hong Kong and will strive to protect all places of worship,” said Cheuk
Hau-yip, regional commander of the Kowloon West area, where the mosque is
located, as he reiterated the apology. “As the head of the Kowloon West Region,
I would like to reiterate that we certainly do not have any malicious intent.”
Police representatives however continued to
insist that a dangerous crowd was standing outside the mosque and the water
cannon was to protect it.
Tense scenes unfolded outside the Tsim Sha
Tsui police station by early afternoon, as protesters marching past shouted
chants calling the police gangsters and demanding the force be dissolved.
Police use of force has emerged as a key complaint for many in Hong Kong, who
say officers are acting with impunity to suppress the movement.
A protester urinated on the station’s gates,
and police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. Tear gas streamed down the
Ladies Market, a popular tourist attraction, sending unprotected stall-holders
and shoppers scurrying for cover. Some were assisted by protesters and
volunteer medics.
Many demonstrators, facing the possibility of
being penned in by police, found sanctuary in little businesses that support
the protests or huddled in overflowing restaurants, cafes and bars where they
could change their clothes and wait for reports on Telegram indicating how they
could get safely away while avoiding the police.
Sunday’s protest, planned initially to show
opposition to a recently enacted law
banning the use of face masks at public gatherings, continued for hours
from a starting point in the Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood. April, 27, and her
boyfriend, William, 29, stood near a park where protesters first gathered. The
couple said they had held off getting married or having kids out of concern
over the direction of Hong Kong and the possibility of raising children in a
city where Beijing’s grip is tightening.
“The situation for future generations is
turning worse very quickly. We are really worried,” April said. “If we don’t
fight today, there won’t be a future generation.”
As night fell around the Kowloon Mosque, a
group of volunteers began clearing the pools of caustic blue dye, using cloths
to remove it from the mosque’s metal gates and brooms to sweep it into drains.
Some gagged as they worked, but the crowd of volunteers grew by the hour.
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