HK protesters hurl petrol bombs
HONG KONG (Reuters) — Fresh violence erupted around a besieged Hong Kong university campus yesterday morning, as protesters braced for a possible final police push to clear them after fiery clashes overnight.
The city’s Education Bureau announced that classes at all schools will continue to be suspended today for the safety of students. All kindergartens, primary and secondary schools as well as special schools have been closed since last Thursday.
In a statement yesterday, the bureau said that schools should prepare for classes to resume, but students should stay at home and not take part in any unlawful activities.
“Although the roads and public transport services in the territory have gradually resumed, there are still uncertain factors currently,” the bureau said.
The announcement came after clashes in the morning at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Kowloon district. Protesters hurled petrol bombs, some by catapult, and police fired volleys of tear gas to force them up onto the podium of the red-brick campus.
After skirmishes overnight, protesters slept for a few hours on lawns and in the university library.
Police fired fresh rounds of tear gas shortly after 10 a.m. Activists hurled petrol bombs in return, some igniting trees outside the campus.
Still earlier, squads of Chinese soldiers dressed in shorts and T-shirts, some carrying red plastic buckets or brooms, emerged from their barracks in a rare public appearance to help residents clear debris blocking key roads.
Parts of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus looked more like a fortress yesterday morning, with barricades and black-clad protesters manning the ramparts with improvised weapons like bricks, crates of fire bombs.
“We don’t want to attack the police, we just want to safeguard our campus ... . and we want to safeguard Hong Kong,” said Chan, 20, a year-three student at the university who did not want to provide her full name.
The campus is the last of five universities to be occupied, with activists using it as a base to continue to block the city’s central cross-harbour road tunnel.
The presence of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers on the streets, even to help clean up, could stoke further controversy over Hong Kong’s autonomous status at a time many fear Beijing is tightening its grip on the city.
Pro-democracy lawmakers condemned the PLA’s actions in a joint statement, warning that under the city’s Garrison Law, the military must not interfere in local affairs unless it was asked by the government to help with disaster relief or public order, government-funded broadcaster RTHK reported.
Hong Kong did not request assistance from the PLA and the military initiated the operation as a “voluntary community activity,” a spokesman for the city’s government said.
The Asian financial hub has been rocked by months of demonstrations, with many people angry at perceived Communist Party meddling in the former British colony, which was guaranteed its freedoms when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.