2014-10-05
The statue ‘Umbrella Man,’ made by the Hong Kong artist known as Milk, is set up at a pro-democracy protest site next to the central government offices in Hong Kong, Oct. 5, 2014.
AFP
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters remained in occupation of key roads and intersections in downtown Hong Kong on Sunday, ignoring a warning by authorities to clear the areas they have blockaded for the last week.
Some 2,000 protesters gathered, some lying down or huddled under large umbrellas, on the main road near the office of embattled Hong Kong chief executive C.Y. Leung in Admiralty district, live video footage from the Apple Daily media group showed.
Meanwhile, a similar number gathered under a makeshift shelter in Kowloon’s Mong Kok shopping district, where protesters of the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement were assaulted Friday by those who oppose them.
Tens of thousands of protesters have gathered in key areas of the semiautonomous Chinese territory since last Sunday demanding that Leung step down and that Beijing allow them the right to vote for a leader of their choice in 2017 elections.
While all of the former British colony’s five million voters will have a vote, candidates must be vetted by Beijing, making the selection of a pro-democratic politician highly unlikely.
Preliminary talks
Protest leaders have held preliminary discussions with government officials in the wake of an ultimatum set by Leung, who had vowed to “take all necessary actions to restore social order” for civil servants to resume work and students to return to schools by Monday morning local time.
Protest groups such as the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), Occupy Central and the academic activist body Scholarism issued a joint statement saying that the 3,000-odd civil servants have always been able to access their offices at the heart of the government district.
“The civil service department can tell its staff to return to their normal workplace, and would the government please stop misleading the public,” the statement said.
HKFS leader Alex Chow said he was confident the protest organizers could “leave a passage clear for civil servants” on Monday, if the occupation of major roads continued.
“Civil servants are already able to get into the main building, so I think we have already responded to the government’s demands,” he told reporters.
Photos of the two entrances to the brand new government office complex in Admiralty showed one blocked by metal barricades, while protesters camped near the other had left a narrow walkway to allow civil servants to return to work, according to the South China Morning Post website.
