HK protesters hit traders, dispersed
Credit to Author: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE| Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2019 16:14:34 +0000
HONG Kong: Police were forced to use pepper sprays and batons to disperse demonstrators who tried to attack business stalls owned by people from mainland in Sheung Shui area.
Sheung Shui boasts dozens of pharmacies and cosmetic stores that are hugely popular with mainland merchants who snap up goods in Hong Kong — where there is no sales tax — and resell them across the border.
Protesters used bottled water to clean their eyes of pepper spray, while one demonstrator was bleeding from a head wound, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter said.
While parallel traders bring business to regions near the border, they are also a source of tension for locals.
“It’s really annoying. The rent has gone higher. Other small shops and restaurants can’t survive. The whole region has become a place serving for parallel traders instead of local residents,” protester Siu Hok-yan, 74, told AFP.
Most of the shops in Sheung Shui were shuttered ahead of the protests, with demonstrators forcing the few still open to close, images broadcast by local media showed.
In a statement late Saturday, police said a small hard core of protesters “hurled iron poles” and “charged police cordon lines.”
Protesters accused police of charging without warning and using excessive violence, with multiple videos soon going viral online.
Hong Kong has been rocked by a month of huge peaceful protests as well as a series of separate violent confrontations with police sparked by a law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.
Last month, its parliament was trashed by hundreds of masked, youth-led protesters in unprecedented scenes.
The bill has since been postponed, but that has done little to quell public anger, which has evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms, universal suffrage and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous hub.
AFP
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