Anti-government protesters, many masked and wearing black, have thrown petrol bombs at police and central government offices, stormed the Legislative Council, blocked roads to the airport, trashed metro stations and lit fires on the streets of the Chinese-ruled city.
Police have responded with tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, bean bag rounds and several live rounds fired in the air, warning the crowds beforehand with a series of different colored banners.
They have also been seen beating protesters on the ground with batons, with footage of one such attack on cowering passengers on an MTR subway train going viral online and prompting widespread anger.
“The evidence leaves little room for doubt – in an apparent thirst for retaliation, Hong Kong’s security forces have engaged in a disturbing pattern of reckless and unlawful tactics against people during the protests,” Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia director at Amnesty International, said in a report following a field investigation. “This has included arbitrary arrests and retaliatory violence against arrested persons in custody, some of which has amounted to torture.”
In one instance, police shone green lasers into the eyes of detainees, Amnesty said, employing a tactic previously used by many protesters against police.
Responding to the Amnesty report, police said they have respected the “privacy, dignity and rights” of those in custody according to regulations, allowing detainees transport to hospitals and communication with lawyers and their families.
“The force to be used by police shall be the minimum force necessary for achieving a lawful purpose,” police said in an emailed statement.
The official police Facebook page earlier noted that almost 240 police had been wounded in the violent protests as they exercised “a high level of restraint ... to restore public order.”
The recent round of protests in Hong Kong, a former British colony that was returned to China under a “one country, two systems” arrangement in 1997, was sparked by planned legislation that would have allowed people accused of breaking Chinese laws to be sent to the mainland for trial.
Based on Reuters
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