Nine people, including two police officers, were injured during
clashes between protesters and Hong Kong police on the day of the
opening ceremony of the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC6)
yesterday.
Demonstrators said police had arrested several of them, and
later Albert Ma, Chief Superintendent of the Police Public
Relations Branch, said protests around the international trade
talks should be nonviolent.
"Hong Kong citizens do not allow violent acts," said Ma. "All
activities have to be peaceful and orderly and they should not
cross the line." He added that police had used minimum force to
control the situation.
Yesterday's demonstrations started at 1:30 PM at Victoria Park
and people of various protest groups reached Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Center, the venue of the MC6, at 3 PM.
The protestors, numbering more than 5,000, came from South
Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines and some African and European
countries.
Yi Hoon-chong, manager of the Korea Fisheries Association, said
there were almost 2,000 demonstrators from South Korea who had come
to make their message heard that opening markets and eliminating
tariffs would make them suffer.
Gi-soo Park, representative of the Nongso Agricultural
Cooperative, said such measures would also affect individual
farmers like their members, with an average farm size of 145
hectares.
"It is hard for us to compete with international prices," said
Park.
After arriving at the designated protest area, police said more
than 100 mostly South Korean demonstrators jumped into the sea,
apparently trying to swim to the venue of the talks.
South Korean farmers also pushed a wooden structure weighing
several hundred pounds towards the conference venue. When stopped
by police, they tried to burn the structure, but police soon
extinguished the fire.
According to the police, after some protestors charged at them
reinforcement forces in full riot gear fended them off with
irritant foam similar to pepper spray.
Among those sprayed in the eyes was Leung Kwok-hung, member of
the special administrative region's Legislative Council.
Demonstrations involving thousands of anti-globalization and
anti-WTO protestors began on Sunday, and the MC6 is scheduled to
run until December 18.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2005)