magazine

Huge Hong Kong rally after student dies and lawmakers
arrested
People pay tribute with flowers to Chow Tsz-lok,
22, a university student who fell during protests at
the weekend and died early on Friday morning, at
the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,
in Hong Kong, China
November 8, 2019.
Tyrone Siu, Reuters
HONG KONG - Tens
of thousands of Hong
Kongers packed
into a park Saturday
night to mourn
a student who died
during recent clashes
as police arrested
a group of pro-democracy
lawmakers,
deepening the
city's political crisis.
The international finance hub has been upended
by five months of huge and increasingly violent
pro-democracy protests, but Beijing has refused
to give in to most of the movement's demands.
Tensions have soared since the death on Friday
of Alex Chow, 22, who succumbed to head injuries
sustained during a fall as police skirmished
with demonstrators inside a car park last weekend.
The huge rally -- one of the few in recent months to obtain
police approval -- means Hong Kong has witnessed
24 weekends of protest in what has become the most profound
challenge to Beijing's rule since the 1997 handover.
Many at the peaceful and somber rally wore black.
"I want an independent inquiry because that
proves Hong Kong is still a place with rule of
law," a 35-year-old woman, who gave her surname
Wong, told AFP, echoing the movement's
core demand for an investigation into police tactics.
Wong, who said she moved to Hong Kong from the
mainland three years ago, said she also wanted to see
less confrontational tactics from hardcore protesters.
"I think non-violent ways can also win," she said.
Lawmaker
arrests
The rally came after police brought charges
against at least seven lawmakers who
now face up to a year in jail if convicted.
4
Three were arrested overnight, three attended
appointments on Saturday evening
to be booked, and one refused to appear.
The charges relate to chaotic scenes that broke out
within a legislative committee
in May as pro-democracy
lawmakers tried
to stop a controversial bill
being discussed that would
allow extraditions to authoritarian
mainland China.
At the time, city leader Carrie
Lam was fast-tracking
the bill through the legislature,
a move that ignited record-breaking
street protests
in which millions marched.
"The protests that have
been going on for five months are yet to finish but
the government is already launching massive arrests
of pro-democracy legislators in collaboration with
the police," the lawmakers said in a joint statement.
Hong Kong's legislature is quasi-democratic, with
half the seats popularly elected and the rest chosen
by largely pro-Beijing committees, ensuring the
chamber remains stacked with government loyalists.
Opposition to the government comes in the
form of a small band of pro-democracy lawmakers
who win their seats in local elections.
The lack of fully free elections -- and especially
the fact that the city's leader is appointed by a
pro-Beijing committee -- has fuelled years of protests
that have culminated in the latest unrest.
Chow's death has only intensified the tinderbox atmosphere
in what has become a deeply polarised city, with
violence escalating on both sides of the ideological divide.
Although the precise chain of events leading to
his fall is unclear and disputed, protesters have
made alleged police brutality one of their movement's
rallying cries and have seized on the death.
Police have repeatedly denied any allegations
of wrongdoing in relation to Chow's death.
Vigils on Friday night saw large crowds and frequent
clashes with police in multiple neighborhoods,
including one officer firing a live warning shot.
KATIPUNEROS : SA BAGONG PANAHON