HONG KONG (Reuters) – Pro-democracy leaders called on Hong Kong’s citizens to join a Sunday anti-government march in spite of the risk of arrest, after police banned the rally which is seen as a test of the protest movement’s strength following months of unrest.
Police declared the march illegal on Friday, citing concerns over public safety, and a court on Saturday said the destination of the march – the main railway interchange with mainland China – could be attacked and vandalized.
Hardcore protesters have in recent weeks targeted mainland Chinese businesses, daubing them in graffiti and at times setting fires, while mainland Chinese living in Hong Kong have begun to express fears for their own safety.
“We urge the Hong Kong people to … assemble peacefully, march peacefully, in order to show the whole world we are still eager for the five demands,” campaigner Leung Kwok-hung said on Saturday, vowing the demonstration would go ahead.
The demands include universal suffrage, an independent inquiry into police action against protesters, amnesty for those charged, and an end to describing protesters as rioters.
In the past, thousands of people have defied police and staged mass rallies without permission, often peaceful at the start but becoming violent at night. Protesters have hurled bricks and petrol bombs at police, who have responded with baton charges and volleys of tear gas on city streets.
Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, has rejected the demands and on Saturday backed the use of force by police against protesters, amid criticism of heavy-handed tactics.
More than 90% of a 3,200-strong alumni at Hong Kong University on Saturday passed a motion calling for Lam’s resignation, saying students had suffered “injuries from police brutality” while in custody.
Hong Kong has been relatively calm in the past two weeks after violent protests ignited by the introduction of colonial-era emergency laws.
A prayer sit-in was scheduled downtown on Saturday evening, while demonstrations on Friday were calm, with protesters forming a human chain along the metro network and many donning masks in defiance of a ban on covering faces at public rallies.
