Wed, Jul 24, 2019 page3

• HK students condemn violence back home

  ‘RIPPING APART SOCIETY’: Any government that allowed criminal organizations to attack unarmed citizens should be held accountable, Premier Su Tseng-chang said

  • By Wu Po-hsuan and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  A group of Hong Kong students in Taiwan yesterday condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Hong Kong Legislative Council (Legco), and called on governments worldwide to alert their citizens to the dangers of traveling to Hong Kong.

  The students’ condemnation came after Sunday’s violence against protesters, including Hong Kong police shooting into crowds and a gang of white-clad men armed with metal rods and wooden poles attacking demonstrators at a Mass Transit Railway station in Yuen Long District in the New Territories.

  The CCP and Legco have misread and mishandled the situation, the students, who are members of the “Hong Kong Outlanders,” said in a statement.

  

  A poster on the Hong Kong Outlanders’ Facebook page is pictured in a screen grab yesterday.

  Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times

  From the start of protests against a proposed extradition bill, both the party and the council have ignored the will of the people and demonstrated their “flat” understanding of democracy, freedom and rule of law, the students said.

  “We call on the government to account for silently allowing pervasive acts of violence and the spread of terror; we call on the government to refrain from further fracturing Hong Kong and exposing it to further danger; and we hope that Hong Kong, our home, will permit us to defend it openly, without the need to fear the shadows,” they said.

  The students condemned the indiscriminate attack by a white-shirted mob at the Yuen Long station, saying that such actions are a threat to public safety and have caused social panic, as well as violated Hong Kongers’ rights to personal safety.

  “These acts are close to what China’s anti-terrorism law would deem as ‘terrorist activities,’” they said in the statement.

  The Hong Kong government and the police have taken no action against these incidents and have instead attempted to define the beatings by the white-shirted mob as “private disputes resulting in injuries,” they said.

  The group cited media reports of alleged communication between the mob — some of whom are suspected to be triad members — and Hong Kong police officers, suggesting that the government itself have been might behind the oppression.

  The government should be condemned for adopting delay tactics that continue to rip apart Hong Kong society, while pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho (何君堯) has openly praised the actions of the mob, the students said.

  The police firing 36 warning shots into a crowd was the use of arms without a legal basis, they said, adding that the action should be considered premeditated manslaughter and that the police should be brought to task.

  Meanwhile, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that any government allowing criminal organizations to attack unarmed citizens should feel the rage of their citizens and be held accountable.

  “It was painful and shocking to see what happened in Hong Kong,” Su said. “We should cherish and preserve our hard-earned democracy in Taiwan and root for Hong Kong.”

  Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
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