Hong Kong yesterday dismissed US criticism of its human rights practices, saying that the territory was “firmly committed” to upholding and safeguarding freedoms.
The former British colony was rocked by months of sometimes violent protests from June last year, triggered by a now-suspended bill that would have allowed extraditions to China.
The US Department of State on Wednesday said in a report that significant human rights issues in the Chinese-ruled territory included police brutality against protesters, interference with the right of peaceful assembly and restrictions on political participation.
Photo: Reuters
Hong Kong’s government said that the police were duty bound to take appropriate action, including the use of necessary force, in the face of violence that endangered public order.
“The degree and extent of violence committed by radical protesters was unprecedented in Hong Kong, and it has seriously endangered people’s personal safety, public order and security,” the territory’s government said in a statement.
Safeguarding human rights and freedoms was a constitutional duty, it said.
“The government attaches the utmost importance to and is firmly committed to upholding human rights and various freedoms in Hong Kong,” it added.
The department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices highlighted examples of police brutality against protesters, including on Aug. 31 last year, when police “rushed onto a subway train and beat several individuals while making arrests.”
On press freedom, the department cited many journalists as saying that they were harassed, detained or assaulted while covering the protests, while the house of democracy activist Jimmy Lai (黎智英), who is also an outspoken critic of Beijing and owner of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper, was attacked.
The department also referred to vandalism on the part of protesters, including damage to the office of China’s state-run Xinhua news agency in November last year.
The territory’s government said that freedom of speech and freedom of peaceful assembly were “not absolute.”
“The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that restrictions might be imposed by law if this is necessary to protect, amongst others, national security, public safety, public order or the rights and freedoms of others,” it said.
The unrest in Hong Kong developed into calls for greater democracy, fueled by worries about the erosion of rights guaranteed under a “one country, two systems” formula imposed when the territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Hong Kong’s government said that universal suffrage was an ultimate aim, but it needed dialogue in an atmosphere of peace and mutual trust leading to consensus.
“Any allegations of political censorship, restriction of the freedom of speech or deprivation of the right to stand for elections are totally unfounded,” it said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
ACCESS DISPUTE: The blast struck a house, and set cars and tractors alight, with the fires wrecking several other structures and cutting electricity An explosion killed at least five people, including a pregnant woman and a one-year-old, during a standoff between rival groups of gold miners early on Thursday in northwestern Bolivia, police said, a rare instance of a territorial dispute between the nation’s mining cooperatives turning fatal. The blast thundered through the Yani mining camp as two rival mining groups disputed access to the gold mine near the mountain town of Sorata, about 150km northwest of the country’s administrative capital of La Paz, said Colonel Gunther Agudo, a local police officer. Several gold deposits straddle the remote area. Agudo had initially reported six people killed,
SUSPICION: Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing returned to protests after attending a summit at which he promised to hold ‘free and fair’ elections, which critics derided as a sham The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen to more than 3,300, state media said yesterday, as the UN aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation. The quake on Friday last week flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, new figures published by state media showed. More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses. A UN estimate
The US government has banned US government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press (AP) has learned. Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing US ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential directive. Although some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket “nonfraternization” policy, as it is known, has
RSS