Former HK chief executive calls for end of occupation(2)

HK government promised that the appeals made by students will be directly reported to the central authorities, and the government also considered how to submit a report to the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council to express the opinions collected after the top legislature's decision on Aug. 31 from all circles in the region on Hong Kong's constitutional development.

Tung said he was glad the two sides started the talk and hope the dialogue would continue.

More scuffles broke out on last Friday night and early Saturday morning in Mong Kok. Protesters were in an attempt to reclaim the roads following the blitz clearing operation launched by the police before dawn on last Friday, when most of the tents, canopies, barricades set up by protesters that had been blocking main roads were removed.

Chief Superintendent of Police Public Relations Branch, Hui Chun-tak said Friday afternoon that confrontations and crime cases occur everyday in the illegally occupied areas in Mong Kok.

Hui said that the current situation no-longer matches with the "non-violent" principle as the protesters have claimed earlier. Radical protesters and troublemakers were amongst those remaining in the unlawful assembly.

"They stirred up the emotions of the persons at the scene. They provoked police officers and charged our cordon lines to create chaos. In comparison with other illegally occupied areas, the situations in Mong Kok are actually more chaotic and dangerous," he said.

The Supreme Court of Hong Kong on Monday granted injunctions requiring protesters to clear the roads illegally occupied and forbidding them from hindering the removal of obstacles from the areas, a move following groups of minibus and taxi operators filed for an injunction demanding the reopening of the paralyzed traffic.

Hui urged the general public not to go to the affected areas in Mong Kok and not to incite others to further obstruct any other roads.

"Should there be any troublemakers carrying out any violent behavior or charge Police, we, with no other alternatives, will use minimum force to maintain law and order and ensure public safety," he said.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad said here Friday that Occupy Central Movement is not democracy.

"If you fight for democracy you must persuade the majority of people to support you, then you can call it a democracy process," Mahathir said after giving a speech entitled "Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Sino-American geopolitics."

"When you take to the streets but you are a very small number by comparison to the population, and you force the majority to accept your views, it is not democracy," he said.

"I think if they (occupy protesters) want to do something, they have to accept other means."

Mahathir said confrontation and violence can not solve the problem because eventually other people will be against the protesters whose actions undermine the economy and affect other people's lives.

According to Hong Kong's Basic Law and the top legislature's decisions, more than 5 million Hong Kong voters could have a say to who will become the chief executive in 2017 through the "one man, one vote" election, which had never been realized under the British colonial rule.