Pro-democracy protesters reject city leader’s call to end rallies
1 Oct 2014 6:10 AM IST
Hong Kong demonstrators rejected demands Tuesday to immediately end rallies that have paralysed the city’s centre, their numbers swelling for a third night before a national holiday expected to put their campaign for free elections into overdrive.
Protest leaders are confident they can muster massive crowds overnight and into Wednesday for the National Day public holiday.
The National Day this year marks the 65th anniversary of the founding of Communist China.
Protesters rejected a call from the city’s embattled leader to end the sit-in, as well as Beijing’s branding of their demonstrations as ‘illegal’. They took to the streets once more in anger at China’s refusal to grant full democracy.
A heavy downpour briefly sent umbrellas skyward and crowds scurrying, but the prospect of bad weather left the crowds undeterred.
‘We have spent more than a week under the sun, under pepper spray, we of course can stand the rain. Nothing can stop us,’ a recent university student who identified himself as Choi told AFP.
In his first public comments since demonstrators were tear-gassed by riot police on Sunday evening, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said the pro-democracy sit-in organised partly by the Occupy Central group was now ‘out of control’.
Protest leaders are confident they can muster massive crowds overnight and into Wednesday for the National Day public holiday.
The National Day this year marks the 65th anniversary of the founding of Communist China.
Protesters rejected a call from the city’s embattled leader to end the sit-in, as well as Beijing’s branding of their demonstrations as ‘illegal’. They took to the streets once more in anger at China’s refusal to grant full democracy.
A heavy downpour briefly sent umbrellas skyward and crowds scurrying, but the prospect of bad weather left the crowds undeterred.
‘We have spent more than a week under the sun, under pepper spray, we of course can stand the rain. Nothing can stop us,’ a recent university student who identified himself as Choi told AFP.
In his first public comments since demonstrators were tear-gassed by riot police on Sunday evening, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said the pro-democracy sit-in organised partly by the Occupy Central group was now ‘out of control’.
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