HONG KONG, Aug 12 (NNN-AGENCIES ) – Hong Kong International Airport has cancelled all flight check-ins on Monday as anti-government protesters occupy the arrivals hall, the city’s airport authority said.
Flights with checked-in passengers and those en route to Hong Kong were allowed to proceed, but all other flights were cancelled, the airport said in a statement.
The cancellations came as thousands of people gathered in the arrivals hall. According to a crowd-sourced Telegram account, police were reportedly en route to the airport.
Flights were also cancelled last Monday as airport employees participated in a city-wide anti-government strike.
Chanting that police should “return the eye” of a protester who was seriously injured by a non-lethal bullet, many protesters carried images of police-protester clashes from the weekend or wore symbolic patches over their eye.
While much of the crowd included young people, who made up the majority of demonstrations this weekend, protesters also included families and professionals who took sick leave to participate.
“We were supposed to work but we think this is more important – I think the government is pushing both sides of opinion to the edge,” said a protester who gave his surname as Chan, but declined to give his first name as he works in the finance sector.
“I think the government is not stopping the violence and instead trying to escalate it by giving the police authority to exercise unlawful and brutal acts,” he said.
Images of police violence, particularly at demonstrations on Sunday night, shocked the Asian financial hub even after two-and-a-half months of increasingly violent demonstrations.
Protests began on June 9 against a now-suspended legislative bill that would have allowed for criminal extradition to mainland China.
While Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, it has a separate legal system until 2047 under the “one country, two systems” arrangement.
Leader Carrie Lam has failed to withdraw the extradition bill even though it was suspended, and has declined to launch an independent commission into police violence.
Sunday marked the first time that police fired tear gas into a subway station, and also marked the first deployment of undercover police officers who disguised themselves as protesters, according to Civil Rights Observer, a protest watchdog.
“Police are escalating force. You can see they clearly violate safety guidelines when they fired tear gas into an enclosed area in an MTR station,” said spokesman Icarus Wong.
Protest observers also said police appeared to use excessive force against protesters who were already subdued, including by hitting them with batons.
The image of a blood-soaked female protester bleeding from her eye, however, appeared to be the main rallying cry of protesters on Monday.
Daniel Tsui, a protester at the airport, told dpa that plans for the demonstration already began late Sunday night as images and videos of police violence were shared across Telegram and social media groups.
“We want to support her so we came to the airport today to express our [feelings] about police violence,” he said.
The airport rally marks for the fourth consecutive day of demonstrations at the transit hub, which began on Friday to draw attention from international visitors.
The government said it “severely condemned” protests over the weekend, including the use of bricks and a “petrol bomb” that hit an officer.
“We are outraged by the violent protesters’ behaviour, which showed a total disregard for the law, posing a serious threat to the safety of police officers and other members of the public,” it said.
Separately in Taipei, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said that the confrontations in Hong Kong were raising concerns among supporters of democracy and freedom around the world.
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