(Reuters) – Hong Kong authorities said on Wednesday police involved in the beating of a pro-democracy protester would be removed from their positions after footage of the overnight incident went viral, sparking outrage from some lawmakers and the public.
Police said they arrested 45 protesters in the early hours, using pepper spray on those who resisted, as they cleared a main road in the Chinese-controlled city that had been barricaded by pro-democracy demonstrators with concrete slabs.
Several officers appeared to beat and kick a handcuffed protester for several minutes after dragging him to a dark corner next to the protest site in footage aired by television broadcaster TVB.
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok told a news conference police would investigate the suspected use of excessive force. The officers shown in the video would be temporarily removed from their positions, Lai added.
Outrage over the beating could galvanize support for the democracy movement in the former British colony where more than two weeks of protests over Chinese restrictions on how it chooses its next leader in 2017 had dwindled from around 100,000 at their peak to a few hundred.
Alan Leong, leader of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Civic Party, identified the person in the video as Ken Tsang Kin-chiu and said he was a member of the party.
Civic Party legislator Dennis Kwok, a lawyer representing Tsang, said police also beat Tsang inside a police station. Tsang had since been taken to hospital, Kwok said.
Tsang is also a social worker. The Hong Kong Social Workers’ Association said it planned to march to police HQ in the evening to protest.
Photographs showing Tsang with bruising on his face and body, released by democracy activists, sparked anger and condemnation. Human rights group Amnesty International said the police involved in what appeared to be a “vicious attack against a detained man” should face justice.
Police, without referring to Tsang, said in a statement they had used minimum force, including pepper spray, to disperse protesters who had gathered illegally overnight.
The operation was the toughest against largely student protesters in more than a week and came after demonstrators swarmed into a tunnel on a four-lane thoroughfare late on Tuesday, halting traffic and chanting for universal suffrage.
“There were so many police. They punched people … We are peaceful,” Danny Chiu, a student in his 20s, told Reuters, breaking down in tears.
The tunnel in the Admiralty district near government headquarters was reopened after police cleared away barriers of concrete slabs.
Protesters have been demanding full democracy for the city. They are also calling for its pro-Beijing leader, Leung Chun-ying, to step down.
But their campaign, now into its third week, has caused traffic chaos and drained public support for their actions.
China rules Hong Kong under a “one country, two systems” formula that accords the city a degree of autonomy and freedom not enjoyed in mainland China, with universal suffrage an eventual goal.
Beijing said on Aug. 31 that only candidates that get majority backing from a nominating committee stacked with Beijing loyalists would be able to contest a full city-wide vote to choose Hong Kong’s next leader.
‘DOOMED TO FAILURE’
China’s ruling Communist Party believes it has offered enough concessions to Hong Kong in the past, and would give no ground because it wants to avoid setting a precedent for reform on the mainland, sources told Reuters.
The position was arrived at during a meeting of the new National Security Commission chaired by President Xi Jinping in the first week of October, the sources said.
The People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, said in a front-page commentary the protests were “doomed to failure”.
“Numerous facts and history tell us that if people start radical and illegal acts and there is submission to political blackmail, it will only result in more and more illegal activities and exacerbate instability and chaos,” the paper said.
Leung said this week there was “zero chance” China’s leaders would give in to protesters’ demands and change the August decision limiting democracy.
A top Chinese official rebuked the self-ruled island of Taiwan on Wednesday for its “irresponsible” comments on the protests. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has expressed support for the demonstrators and urged China to move towards democracy.
On Tuesday, police used chainsaws and sledge-hammers to clear blockades on another major road in Admiralty, next to the Central business district.
But hundreds of protesters then stormed into the nearby tunnel, catching authorities by surprise.
Despite the reopening of the two major roads there was no immediate sign the core protest zone outside government headquarters, where hundreds of tents remain pitched on an eight-lane highway, would be cleared. Protesters are also scattered around other parts of Admiralty.
Smaller groups remain in the shopping district of Causeway Bay and across the harbor in the densely populated Mong Kok area.
Police, criticized for using tear gas and batons in the first 24 hours of the protests, had adopted a more patient approach, counting on protesters to come under public pressure to clear main arteries. In recent days, police have selectively removed some barriers on the fringes of protest sites.
The police action in the early hours of Wednesday, however, suggests official patience may be wearing thin.
The number of protesters has fallen off sharply from a peak of about 100,000, but a hardcore group of several thousand remain.
(Additional reporting by Donny Kwok, Yimou Lee, Amanda Lee and Clare Jim in HONG KONG and Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Robert Birsel and Nick Macfie)
