HK travel alert issued after airport sit-in
China calls protests ‘near-terrorist’ acts
The Foreign Affairs Ministry is advising Thais to avoid unnecessary travel to Hong Kong following a two-day sit-in at the territory’s international airport.
“Travellers who must go to Hong Kong are advised to check their flight status frequently,” said ministry spokeswoman Busadee Santipitaks yesterday.
Pro-democracy protesters have occupied the airport’s main terminal since Monday, forcing Hong Kong authorities to cancel or reschedule hundreds of flights, and leaving thousands of travellers stranded at the airport.
The chaos prompted Thai Airways International to deploy a bigger aircraft on its Hong Kong-bound flight TG638 and the return leg to bring home all the stranded passengers, said THAI president Sumeth Damrongchaitham.
HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s airport authority said yesterday it has won a court order banning demonstrations that hinder airport use following a clash overnight between police and protesters who had gathered there.
China’s Hong Kong affairs office the same day condemned what it called “near-terrorist acts” at Hong Kong International Airport, including an incident on Tuesday in which a reporter from a Chinese news outlet was roughed up by anti-government protesters.
After days of protests disrupted airport operations and forced cancellations of hundreds of flights, the airport appeared to be returning to normal on yesterday, although over 100 flights were still being cancelled, according to the airport’s website.
The Airport Authority said it has obtained an interim injunction to “restrain persons from unlawfully and willfully obstructing or interfering with the proper use” of the airport and from “attending or participating in any demonstration or protest in the airport” other than in designated areas.
Thousands of people protesting a now-suspended extradition bill and alleged police violence flocked to the airport on Lantau Island for two consecutive days from Monday.
With protesters blocking departing passengers accessing the customs area, carriers were forced to cancel some 400 flights on Tuesday. Late at night, a clash broke out between riot police and protesters, against whom the officers used pepper spray and batons.
Protesters assaulted a man suspected of being an undercover agent from mainland China, according to local media. A mainland Chinese was separately held and tied up by protesters who claimed he was taking photographs of them. The latter was later confirmed to be a reporter from Chinese media Global Times.
Hu Xijun, editor in chief of Global Times, confirmed on his Twitter account that the man held at the airport was reporter Fu Guohao on an assignment at the airport.
As dozens of protesters remained at the airport and an online chatroom was abuzz with calls for another day of rallying, the Chinese government’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office issued a condemnation of the protests at the airport.
“Radical violence in Hong Kong has completely broken through the bottom line of law, morality and humanity,” office spokesman Xu Luying said in the statement.
The protesters who violently attacked the two mainland residents on Tuesday “must be severely punished according to law”, Mr Xu added.
China’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong also issued a statement expressing “grave anger and strong condemnation” against “rioters’ acts” against the two mainland Chinese.
“More outrageously, rioters’ besieging, searching, confining and attacking a Global Times reporter and a Shenzhen resident who was transferring through Hong Kong airport were ... violent acts that overstepped the bottom line of a civilised society and are no different to the acts of terrorists,” it said.
The Hong Kong government likewise condemned the protesters for paralysing airport operation, and assaulting a traveller and a reporter. The police said five people were arrested in connection with the clash between protesters and police, and that two officers were hospitalised.