Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday called on the World Medical Association (WMA) to respond to the situation in Hong Kong, as doctors and nurses were seen being arrested outside Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
“Doctors, nurses, first aiders are being arrested and treated like prisoners of war,” former Hong Kong lawmaker Nathan Law (羅冠聰) wrote on Twitter on Monday, posting an image of medical workers sitting on the ground with their hands tied behind backs.
These are “the most appalling scenes in #HongKong” and “absolutely unacceptable,” Wu wrote yesterday using the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Twitter account.
He retweeted Law’s post, asking if the WMA would say something about the situation.
A Taiwanese student surnamed Tai (戴), whose mother on Sunday called the Mainland Affairs Council saying that her daughter was trapped on the Polytechnic campus in Hung Hom, was yesterday sent to a police station in Kwai Chung in the New Territories, the council said in a statement.
Kao Ming-tsun (高銘村), acting head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hong Kong, yesterday afternoon accompanied Tai’s mother to deal with matters at the police station, it added.
The fundamental solution to the crisis is for the territory’s authorities to listen to the needs of their people, promote democracy and allow Hong Kongers to actually elect their representatives, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing in Taipei.
Many foreign governments, including the US, the UK, Germany and the EU, have voiced concern about the violence in Hong Kong, she said, adding that the international community should continue supporting Hong Kongers in their pursuit of democracy.
“The Hong Kong government bears primary responsibility for bringing calm to Hong Kong,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday during a news briefing in Washington, calling on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) to launch an independent investigation into protest-related incidents.
“The Chinese Communist Party must honor its promises to the Hong Kong people, who only want the freedoms and liberties that they have been promised in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a UN-filed treaty,” Pompeo added.
A group that calls itself Hong Kong Citizens earlier this month launched an online petition, asking the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration to investigate the allegedly unlawful use of force by Hong Kong police against the protesters.
Hong Kong police have committed crimes of aggression, conventional war crimes and crimes against humanity since June 9, the petition’s open letter to court secretary-general Hugo Siblesz reads.
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