|
Welcome, Guest. Please Login.
Dec 22nd, 2024, 4:39am
|
Author |
Topic: WTO Rioting In Hong Kong (Read 751 times) |
|
nOrKAy
Premier Expert
 Happy Valley
# 130
If you don't like my apples, don't shake my tree!
Gender: 
Posts: 2733
|
 |
WTO Rioting In Hong Kong
« on: Dec 27th, 2005, 8:31am » |
 Quote  Modify
|
Violent Demonstration Against WTO, in Hong Kong
After a half day walking and shopping last Saturday in Tsim Sha Tsui, me and my friends decided to have dinner at Boston Restaurant in Wanchai. Unfortunately, we heard there was a chaos and violence going on there by protesters who were mostly Koreans. My friends and I were tempted to head over there after dinner in Central (instead of Wanchai) , to check out the destructions the WTO protesters caused , but unfortunately, the violence and chaos had been raging all day Saturday, after the Korean protesters stated they would escalate their violent actions as the meetings came to a close. At the Star Ferry, there was a police announcement that ferry service to Wanchai was stopped as well as the closure of Wanchai's subway station. Busses operations were stopped ,too. There was also a warning not to go to the Wanchai area. I heeded this advise. Later, we saw live footage of the violence on the KCR trains and we're glad we didn't go to Wanchai to take a look.
Courtesy of CBS News:
Personally, I'm surprised the HK police has been so tolerant with the violent protesters. The HK police were holding the lines and not taking any offensive actions against the aggressive protesters (mainly South Koreans) The riot police had shields and batons but didn't seem to use the batons to strike protesters. There was also pepper spray/foam used and later water cannons were used to clear out the protesters.
I heard that 900 protesters were arrested that day and I'm just glad that this ordeal is over. Hopefully, the HK government has learned its lesson-it was not a good idea to have the WTO meetings downtown in the highly accessible Exhibition and Convention centre. What a terrible idea. Thankfully, this mess was over the next morning (Sunday, Dec 18 ). The nasty protesters could go home.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------
Courtesy of Yahoo! News
HONG KONG (AFP) - Thousands of anti-globalisation activists gathered in Hong Kong watched by a huge security operation aimed at preventing a repeat of violence which has rocked previous WTO meetings.
ADVERTISEMENT
Protesters from international unions, non-government organisations and political parties chanted slogans and waved colourful banners as they prepared to march through Hong Kong to coincide with the start of the World Trade Organisation's ministerial meeting.
Under banners that read "No WTO", "Junk the WTO" and "Fair Trade For All" some protesters are calling for the dissolution of the world body while others urge the talks to pay more heed to the needs of the poor.
Although the crowd swelling Victoria Park, in the city's busy Causeway Bay shopping district was in bouyant mood, police were braced for trouble following intelligence reports that radical activists were planning to storm the summit barricades.
Knots of heavily armed police patrolled the march route, which will take protesters past some of the most expensive real estate in Hong Kong as well the city's luxury car dealerships -- a target of rioters during violent protests in other cities.
Further lines of police and three-metre (10-feet) tall water-filled barricades enforced a 1.5 kilometer (one mile) exclusion zone around the exhibition center where the WTO meeting is taking place.
Stores within the vicinity of the march route were also boarded up in anticipation of violence that marred protests at previous WTO meetings in Seattle in 1999 and in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003.
"I'm very confident that preparations that we have made can cope with any scenario," police commissioner Dick Lee told reporters on the eve of the six-day meeting.
Much of the media's focus was on a delegation of some 1,500 militant South Korean farmers who Monday had vowed to step up their so-far peaceful demonstrations, even warning that they had not ruled out suicide.
At least two Korean farmers have publicly killed themselves during international gatherings to protest against proposed reductions to Korean farm subsidies they say will put rice farmers out of work.
Jung Jiyoung, spokeswoman for the delegation, said the Koreans were upset at being demonised as troublemakers.
"We have repeatedly said we will hold a protest rally according to the principle of non-violence and peace," Jung told AFP.
"But few seem to believe it here. We will stick to the principle of non-violence and peace in our street demonstrations."
The city has been girding itself for trouble.
Authorities have shut down an entire section of the city around the summit venue, the harbourside Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, and deployed 9,000 officers along with another 1,500 temporary marshals and security guards.
Civic authorities have removed street furniture, fixed loose paving stones and strapped down steel covers over sewage drain grills to prevent them being used as missiles or hiding places.
Ordinary Hong Kongers have also been taking no chances. Many stayed away from work on Monday to avoid the expected traffic congestion -- which largely failed to materialise -- and many shops and restaurants have boarded up their windows in expectation of clashes with police.
A rally by several thousands anti-globalisation protesters on Sunday passed off peacefully.
|
| « Last Edit: Dec 27th, 2005, 1:01pm by nOrKAy » |
 IP Logged |
|
|
|
earthlingorgeous
Guest
|
|
Re: WTO Rioting In Hong Kong
« Reply #1 on: Dec 27th, 2005, 8:50am » |
Quote Modify
 Remove
|
yeah Krissy I'm familiar to that the violent protest in Hong Kong about the WTO
It was really well funded, especially the Koreans.
We also have Filipino protesters there...delegates from NGO's and civil society groups here in Philippines...was suppose to cover that event but duh editors....
Some of the protesters were harassed ... as they reported here during a press conference when they got back ...women protesters especially...
WTO some said benefits the developed countries more than the developing countries and the developing countries are becoming more of a dumping of goods for exports ...
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
nOrKAy
Premier Expert
Happy Valley
# 130
If you don't like my apples, don't shake my tree!
Gender:
Posts: 2733
|
|
Re: WTO Rioting In Hong Kong
« Reply #2 on: Dec 27th, 2005, 9:43am » |
Quote Modify
|
Earth,
Yes, and I will try to post too, about the Filipinos who flew from the Philippines just to join in the protest.
By the way, it would be very good, too, if you can open a thread for The Philippines' current events, and let us be informed, especially like me who don't really have time or who don't always able to catch the news broadcasting time. Thanks. 
|
| « Last Edit: Dec 27th, 2005, 9:44am by nOrKAy » |
IP Logged |
|
|
|
earthlingorgeous
Guest
|
|
Re: WTO Rioting In Hong Kong
« Reply #3 on: Dec 27th, 2005, 10:47am » |
Quote Modify
Remove
|
Krissy,
Yeah there are lots of Filipino delegation too Krissy, the Anakbayan, Anakpawis, KMP, SNR bla bla bla.... lol....
And the thread about Philippine Current events its done there's the thread now
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
nOrKAy
Premier Expert
Happy Valley
# 130
If you don't like my apples, don't shake my tree!
Gender:
Posts: 2733
|
|
Re: WTO Rioting In Hong Kong
« Reply #4 on: Dec 27th, 2005, 12:15pm » |
Quote Modify
|
Here are more pictures during the WTO riot, happened recently in Hong Kong:
Courtesy of Mediaaction-HK
|
| « Last Edit: Dec 27th, 2005, 12:16pm by nOrKAy » |
IP Logged |
|
|
|
nOrKAy
Premier Expert
Happy Valley
# 130
If you don't like my apples, don't shake my tree!
Gender:
Posts: 2733
|
|
Re: WTO Rioting In Hong Kong
« Reply #5 on: Dec 27th, 2005, 1:00pm » |
Quote Modify
|
Migrants Joined Anti-WTO Rally
Courtesy of Mediaction-HK
Manila representatives
Filipino Domestic Helpers representatives
Thousands of migrant workers in Hong Kong joined a series of protests before and during the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization held Dec. 13-18 at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. Also took part was an estimated 100-member delegation from the Philippines. They were among an estimated three to four thousand people from overseas who flew to Hong Kong to join the protest.
Two other massive demonstrators were held at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay last Dec. 13 and 18 under the leadership of the Hong Kong People's Alliance, which had pledged to ensure that the protests would be held peacefully.
Several big migrants groups marched under the HKPA banner, including the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, the Asian Migrants Center, the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, Migrante Sectoral Party- Hong Kong and United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil). The Filipino migrants was the biggest.
Unifil chairman Dolores Balladares said that migrants workers' rights, including their right to a "just" wage, must be promoted. She said the liberalization of agriculture that impoverishes peasants in the developing and underdeveloped countries should be stopped.Balladares also demanded that public access to basic services such as education, housing and health must not be curtailed in the name of privatization, and that the indigenous people's lands should not plundered in the name of profit. She closed by saying that in the past 10 years that the WTO has been in existence, its policies have only led to greater poverty, unemployment, displacement, war and grave violations of human rights in poorer countries. Thus, she says it is time that people stopped dreaming of a better world, and started acting.
At least 1,500 joined the march which was preceded by a press conference of AMCB leaders from Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines who explained their group's position on WTO.
I heard that those who had the biggest organizations who participated were the UNIFIL-HK, Cordillera Alliance, Association of Filipino Women Migrants in HK, and the Philippine Independent Church (PIC) Council.
|
| « Last Edit: Jan 9th, 2006, 10:40am by nOrKAy » |
IP Logged |
|
|
|
ReeBop
Administrator
 Arlington TX
# 3
1fw Messenger: reebop@imchat.h opto.org
   
Gender: 
Posts: 1237
|
|
Re: WTO Rioting In Hong Kong
« Reply #6 on: Dec 28th, 2005, 8:04am » |
Quote Modify
|
What I think about mostly in this article is how my community would act if the WTO met here. In the Dallas - Ft Worth area, I think the rioters and peaceful demonstrators would be shipped in. The communities here are rather quiet. Even the proposed Vietnamese demonstration against the Vietnam government fizzled before it even got started.
|
|
IP Logged |
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx
|
|
|
earthlingorgeous
Guest
|
|
Re: WTO Rioting In Hong Kong
« Reply #7 on: Jan 9th, 2006, 10:29am » |
Quote Modify
Remove
|
A follow-up story for the protesters caught in the riot. Some are not freed yet. Here's a press release I got from the freedom from debt coalition asking for their immediate release:
Chinese embassy officials ignore global call to release the Hong Kong 14
MAKATI, PHILIPPINES—More than 100 anti-globalization activists trooped to the Chinese Consulate here today demanding the immediate and unconditional release of 14 political prisoners who were detained and charged with illegal assembly following a protest action during the 6th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference (WTO MC6) in Hong Kong last December.
“We are here to deliver a letter addressed to Mr. Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, through His Excellency Li Jin Jun, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, to express our demand to the Hong Kong government for the immediate release of 14 anti-WTO political prisoners. Unfortunately, they sternly declined to listen,” said Ana Maria R. Nemenzo, president of Freedom from Debt Coalition.
Earlier, three activists—a farmer, a fisherman, and a worker—shaved their heads to symbolize the group’s solidarity with the so-called Hong Kong 14. They were chanting “shutdown WTO, set them free, let them go,” referring to the political prisoners who are now on bail and still waiting for their pre-trial hearing set on January 11.
The protest action was part of an International Day of Action set by anti-WTO organizations and movements around the world to pressure the Chinese government to immediately release the prisoners and send them home, said Nemenzo.
Last December 17, the Hong Kong police forcibly stopped and arrested more than 1,300 activists who were trying to reach the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre where the WTO MC6 was taking place. The police used pepper spray, water hoses and eventually, tear gas, to disperse the protesters. Many demonstrators were injured and some were hospitalized. Nemenzo said their group received reports from their networks in Hong Kong that many detained protesters have been mishandled or beaten by the police and were denied medical aid, food, water and bathroom facilities.
“Most of those arrested have been released, but the Hong Kong government sent 14 demonstrators to court on December 19 charging them with unlawful assembly under the Hong Kong Public Order Ordinance.
These people include 11 Korean farmers and workers, 1 Taiwanese student, 1 Japanese and 1 mainland Chinese,” Nemenzo said. Twelve of the 14 political prisoners launched an indefinite “hunger strike” since January 5 to not only highlight the injustice of their case, but more importantly highlight the reason for them coming to Hong Kong—to protest against the WTO.
“Their fight was not with the people of Hong Kong, but with the undemocratic institution of and the free trade policies implemented by the WTO without any real consultation with workers and farmers,” said Nemenzo, adding that they will continue to monitor closely the proceedings regarding the 14 activists and to stress the call for their immediate release.
Groups that took part in the protest were Freedom from Debt Coalition, Stop the New Round! Coalition, Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) – Philippines, Jubilee South-Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (JS-APMDD), Kilusang Mangingisda (KM), Progresibong Kilusan ng mga Mangingisda sa Pilipinas (PKMP), Sanlakas, Task Force Food Sovereignty (TFFS), Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Resource Center for Peace and Development (RCPD) and Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD). ###
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
1freeworld Groups » Powered by YaBB 1 Gold - SP 1.3.2!
YaBB © 2000-2003. All Rights Reserved..
|
|
Home 
Help 
Search 
Login 
Register 
1freeworld Groups
Re: Reminders and Me... «- Start new topic -» The Ruler Of UAE/ Du... 
Reply
Notify of replies
Send Topic
Print