POLICE
INTERFERENCE WITH
FREEDOM OF
ASSEMBLY
83. After the rollback of the laws relating
to freedoms of association and of assembly by the SAR Government
in the small hours of 1 July 1997, police interference with freedom
of assembly has become more apparent.
84. Before the handover, the police had already
a practice of setting up demonstration areas, usually a small
piece of land surrounded by iron barricades guarded by police
to restrict demonstrators to a particular spot. It was not unusual
for policemen guarding the demonstration areas to block from view
banners displayed by demonstrators on the iron barricade or on
the floor. Occasionally the police do even not allow the demonstrators
to hang their banners and posters on the barricade, saying that
they are police property.
85. At and after the handover, for all demonstrations
targeted at Chinese leaders, demonstration areas were invariably
restricted to locations quite far away from the demonstration
targets, thereby creating conflict and distrust of the police
among demonstrators.
86. The Secretary for Security and a senior
police officer responsible for investigating a case involving
arrested demonstrators both cited a provision in the Public Order
Ordinance on "designated public places" as the source
of power. This is a clear mistake of law as such places have to
be gazetted and are intended for reducing police control not for
confining demonstrators. The sites police have set up near Xinhua,
the Foreign Office Building, and the Wanchai Convention Centre
have never been on the list of designated areas. Such misconception
of the law indicates the lack of appreciation by the authorities
on the limits of their power. This is particularly alarming as
the police have chosen to tighten control on public processions
and meetings.
87. On the eve and day of the handover, the
police were largely professional, restrained, and reasonable.
At the handover, police in uniform were stationed near important
spots out of eyesight. Our observation indicated that police video
teams, which in the past had frequently videotaped all demonstrators
at peaceful demonstrations, had disappeared. The police were unusually
"shy" and therefore much less intimidating compared
to most of the occasions before the handover when senior Chinese
leaders or officials were demonstration targets.
88. However, since the handover, Tung's stress
on responsibilities at the expense of rights, social control instead
of personal freedoms, his stress on "rule by law" rather
than "rule of law", and the inadequate and weakening
check and balance mechanism have all paved the way for diminishing
police self-restraint. The tightening of laws governing public
gatherings by amending the Public Order Ordinance has created
a more restrictive atmosphere. In this climate, the problem of
police interference with demonstrations has been worsening and
reached its climax during the World Bank Conference in Hong Kong.
89. Since the addition of the ground of "national
security" as a ground to ban public gatherings, a new set
of guidelines were needed to implement the controversial newly
amended Public Order Ordinance. Following the issuance of the
vaguely drafted and internally inconsistent guidelines relating
to "national security", the police began to monitor
the political demands of the demonstrators and wanted to be informed
of the slogans the demonstrators intended to chant. The nature
of the work of the police force has thus been substantially changed
as the police are no longer just monitoring behaviour but policing
people's political opinions. In processing an advance notification
required by the law, a peaceful demonstration with separatist
overtone might be prohibited under such new guidelines if the
guidelines are to be taken literally without reference to international
human rights standards.
90. An important feature of post-handover police
control of demonstrations is the police's planned intimidation,
by prominent deployment of force, of demonstrators led by organisers
selectively targeted by the police. Another serious problem is
the police's imposition of unreasonable restrictions on the spot
instead of their inclusion as conditions in the "letter of
no objection" making it impossible for demonstrators to challenge
those restrictions before the Board of Appeal which is specifically
set up for reviewing refusal or restrictions. Another highly objectionable
feature is the readiness to use force on such demonstrators. All
these raise questions as to whether the police are law enforcers
or uniformed law breakers themselves, and whether the police have
begun a transformation into a mechanism of oppression.
91. An exceptionally large number of policemen
were deployed during the World Bank Conference, far outnumbering
demonstrators. Cordons of human-chains formed by policemen would
engulf demonstrators to escort and restrict them in their procession.
The demonstrators would be video-taped all the way. Moreover,
the usual practice of conducting secret surveillance to avoid
alarming a police target has been replaced by deliberate high
profile watching of such demonstrators, accompanying them to the
toilet and to restaurants, often even after the dispersal of a
demonstration. Harassment and infringement of privacy has been
adopted by the police as an integral part of their strategy.
92. A journalist covering the World Bank Conference
in Hong Kong in late October complained to the Monitor, "I
noticed a big crowd of police officers. In their midst, barely
visible, was a small number of protesters, carrying a banner.
They were surrounded by at least five cordons of policemen holding
hands, and surrounded by many more policemen shooing the press
away. It was extremely difficult, not to say impossible, for journalists
to even attempt at doing our job. The demonstrators were so surrounded
by the police that we could not hear their declarations, and we
could not even approach them to get hold of their press statement.
Again, the manner in which the police were sending us away from
the demonstration was a totally unnecessary use of authority,
the demonstrators, and the journalists, were peaceful and orderly,
and the real commotion was being created by the massive police
presence."
93. Another new police tactic is stopping a
procession very far away from its destination. By withholding
the right of the procession to proceed, the police try to extract
a promise from the demonstrators to enter the demonstration areas
specifically set up for the demonstrators. Demonstrators would
then be stopped from heading for places other members of the public
have access to. Demonstrators were therefore kept further away
than other members of the public from their demonstration targets
simply because they were demonstrators. Those demonstrators who
value their rights inevitably challenge the police's right to
hold them hostage to extract promises, so tension mounts and distrust
of the police becomes aggravated. The situation becomes quite
beyond the control of the organisers if rights-conscious demonstrators
react angrily, so that the very tactic designed to extract compliance
becomes a source of disobedience and conflict. To a great extent,
the risk of disorder comes from the police tactics. The police-cum-protesters
march, the big crowd of police surrounding the demonstrators,
and the police blocking off roads to prevent demonstrators from
approaching cause far more disruption than would be caused by
a less over-policed gathering.
94. Those who have suffered most under this
post-handover intimidation and harassment strategy are those demonstrators
specifically targeted. The police have a tradition of discriminating
against demonstrations according to the nature of the organisers'
political status (ordinary activists compared to those prominent
political figures), their political opinion and their demonstration
targets. But with the apparent loss of police self-restraint,
the situation has deteriorated rapidly. Certain individuals who
are frequent participants in demonstrations are marked by the
police for special attention.
95. An example is a group of demonstrators targeted
by the police during the World Bank Conference. This case has
been investigated by the Monitor. Evidence including unpublished
television camera footage taken at the scene, indicates brutal
and unlawful police behaviour. The group criticised the Bank as
worsening poverty by imposing fiscal policy requirements at the
expense of the interest of the poor. As a few demonstrators were
individuals targeted by the police, the demonstrators were under
intimidating police escort in their march to the Conference venue.
The procession to the Conference Centre where the Bank was meeting
was stopped hundreds of metres away from the Centre, at a spot
where the demonstrators could not even see the Centre building.
The demonstrators turned back. With all other ways blocked, using
an escalator they went up a pedestrian flyover. After some of
the demonstrators had already gone up the flyover, the policemen
formed cordons of human barricades to stop the demonstrators in
the other direction and confined them on a narrow space on the
flyover. Those demonstrators who originally chose to stay at the
back of the procession and who had walked in a leisurely manner
up to the flyover ahead of the police, were separated from their
fellow demonstrators and stranded at one end of the flyover leading
to the Immigration Tower. Five of them were arrested even though
they held no banners nor placards, chanted no slogans, and did
nothing but just waited and watched the police stopping their
fellow demonstrators who had just come up. The arrest was for
refusing to leave an area which was open to the public, and which
other members of the public not identified as demonstrators were
entering and leaving freely. It was therefore unlawful. Those
arrested were handcuffed, including two slightly built girls accused
of assaulting police officers. Even the former Deputy of Public
Prosecutions Peter Nguyen has commented—on his last day
in post—that it was "a bit inappropriate" to handcuff
those women demonstrators. The unused television footage shows
five policemen holding a small woman horizontally at waist height
and then dropping her on the pavement.
96. The following is an observation by the journalist
mentioned above on the police control measures.
"Understandably, police security around
the Convention and Exhibition Centre during the World Bank Group/IMF
meetings has been very tight. However, it has probably been too
tight, and has at times turned into outright harassment, not just
of the protesters, but of the journalists trying to cover the
protests, too.
"The Police had arranged a very narrow space
for the protesters, squashed between the Wan Chai Fire Station
and the border of the pavement, allegedly because "traffic
could not be disrupted by the protest". The press was allocated
an even narrower space, fenced off and called "press area",
which only allowed reporters, cameramen and photographers to see
the profile of the demonstrators, without managing to see what
their banners called for, or even managing to have a front view
of the tiny, fence-caged group of protesters.
"The space was so insufficient, that in
order to have an approximate view of the protest we had to queue
up, take a quick look, and make way for the other reporters behind.
In front of the demonstration, some photographers had started
to protest against not being allowed to take front-view pictures,
and eventually the police allowed people to go in front: first,
on a "five at a time" basis, and then eventually gave
in, allowing for another fenced-off "press area" in
front. The protester's banners were still half visible, because
a row of policemen was standing in front of them, and I could
not read what a banner standing on the ground said."
97. Another police measure to make the lives
of the demonstrators difficult is the arbitrary condition imposed
on processions prohibiting the use of an amplification device
on a vehicle while in motion. The condition is arbitrary because
candidates could use such devices in the 1995 Legislative Council
elections.
98. Press covering demonstrations are sometimes
hindered by the police from performing their duties properly.
For instance, during the World Bank Conference, the requirement
of arbitrary registration and sticker labels were imposed despite
the obvious press accreditations hanging around the journalists'
necks.
