Hong Kong students' sewer escape thwarted

[webfact]

Hong Kong students' sewer escape thwarted

By Donny Kwok and Clare Baldwin

 

A rescue diver from the Fire Service department is rinsed after entering the sewage system to search anti-government protesters who escaped from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) after being barricaded by police officers in Hong Kong, China, November 20, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Some anti-government protesters trapped inside a Hong Kong university on Wednesday tried to flee through the sewers, where one student said she saw snakes, but firemen prevented further escape bids by blocking a manhole into the system.

 

Reuters witnesses said fewer than 100 protesters remained inside the Polytechnic University, ring-fenced 24 hours a day by riot police, after more than 1,000 were arrested from late on Monday.

 

Some surrendered while others were held during escape attempts that included trying to clamber down ropes to waiting motorbikes on Monday night, with protesters throwing petrol bombs and police responding with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon.

 

"I told my mom when the police started storming that I wasn’t leaving. I told her: 'I want a democratic society and you are not willing to stand up and fight for it',” Jack, 21, an accounting and finance student, said on Wednesday.

 

“She wrote back with a crying emoji,” he said. "My parents just keep saying they love me, and to keep healthy.”

 

The streets were quiet on Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

Protesters, wearing waterproof boots and carrying torches, resurfaced inside the campus after unsuccessfully probing the sewers - where fast-rising water levels are also a hazard - for a way out during the night.

 

Police said six people were arrested on Wednesday - four while removing a manhole cover outside the campus and two climbing out.

 

Firefighters, whom the students let on to the campus, were in place to stop any further attempts, blocking the only feasible entrance into the sewer system in an underground car park on campus.

 

"The sewer was very smelly, with many cockroaches, many snakes. Every step was very, very painful," said Bowie, 21, a student at Hong Kong University who was forced to turn back.

 

"I’d never thought that one day I would need to hide in a sewer or escape through sewers to survive."

 

The university on the Kowloon peninsula is the last of five that protesters had occupied to use as bases from which to disrupt the city over the past 10 days, blocking the central Cross-Harbour Tunnel and other arteries.

 

“This mission is a loss,” said Brutus, 21, who became a protest frontliner in August. He and his girlfriend were taking a break to eat an orange, a Snickers bar and hard boiled eggs in one of the classrooms.

 

“After all of the things that happened, I don’t think protesters taking control of the universities was a good option. We don’t have gear like the police. We are not well-organised like the police.”

 

Brutus said he also felt bad about damage to the university. Breaking the CCTV cameras was fine, he said, because that was about protecting people. But other damage was wrong – especially to the library.

 

“We are here to learn. Now we can’t pass those books to the students coming in next year. That is a great loss.”

 

He and his girlfriend left to look for a way to escape.

 

ROTTEN FOOD

Police said nearly 800 people had left the campus peacefully by late on Tuesday and they would be investigated, including nearly 300 under the age of 18. At least 24 were seen walking out on Wednesday.

 

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has called for a humane end to a siege that saw the most intense clashes since the protests escalated more than five months ago.

 

Police said they had no plans to storm the campus, now wrecked and daubed with graffiti, parts of it stinking of petrol used to make Molotov cocktails and rotten food, with broken glass everywhere. "Ideas are bulletproof," was spray-painted in a few places.

 

Demonstrators are angry at what they see as Chinese meddling in freedoms promised to Hong Kong when the then British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. They say they are responding to excessive use of force by police.

 

The unrest marks the most serious popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.

 

Police have made more than 5,000 arrests in connection with the protests since June.

 

Chinese leaders say they are committed to Hong Kong's "one country, two systems" formula for autonomy and have accused foreign countries, including Britain and the United States, of stirring up trouble.

 

Ties between China and those two countries came under strain over Hong Kong on Wednesday.

 

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned China’s treatment of Simon Cheng, a former employee of Britain’s Hong Kong consulate, who said secret police beat him seeking information about the protest movement.

 

"We were shocked and appalled by the mistreatment he suffered while in Chinese detention, which amounts to torture," Raab said.

 

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Cheng had been detained for 15 days and had admitted his offences. All of his legal rights were safeguarded, the spokesman said.

 

A U.S. bill that aims to protect human rights in Hong Kong was set to go the House of Representatives on Wednesday, a day after the Senate passed it unanimously.

 

China condemned the proposed legislation, which is expected to be passed by the House. If it is then signed by President Donald Trump, it would require the U.S. secretary of state to certify at least once a year that Hong Kong retains enough autonomy to qualify for special U.S. trading consideration and would impose sanctions against officials responsible for rights violations.

 

Beijing vowed to take counter-measures to safeguard its sovereignty and security.

 

(Reporting by Marius Zaharia, Jessie Pang, Aleks Solum, Joseph Campbell, Tom Peter, Twinnie Siu, Clare Jim, Donny Kwok, Clare Baldwin and Julie Zhu; Writing by Tony Munroe and Nick Macfie; Editing by Giles Elgood and Philippa Fletcher)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-21

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[Somtamnication]

Well, that put a stink into their plans. This is not going to end well.

[Traubert]

'The unrest marks the most serious popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.'

 

Oh Reuters, that statement gets dafter by the day. A bunch of 15 year olds and their mentors? Really? Crawling through sewers so their parents don't box their ears? Yes, no doubt it's turned Xi incontinent.

 

It's certainly turned the western press incompetent. 'These brave protestors who beat women, set elders on fire, kill pensioners with rocks, shoot policemen with arrows, burn the public transport network, threaten children, stab political campaigners in public, hurl petrol bombs everywhere are the victims of police brutality.'

 

Get stretched.

[Tug]

Brave kids fighting for democracy but unfortunately they are up s#@t creek with out a paddle this won’t end well 

[Barry343]

4 hours ago, Tug said:

Brave kids fighting for democracy but unfortunately they are up s#@t creek with out a paddle this won’t end well 

Brave kids, they are radicles 

[yuyiinthesky]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned China’s treatment of Simon Cheng, a former employee of Britain’s Hong Kong consulate, who said secret police beat him seeking information about the protest movement.

 

"We were shocked and appalled by the mistreatment he suffered while in Chinese detention, which amounts to torture," Raab said.

More about that: BBC: Simon Cheng tortured in China

 

If even innocent observers working for the UK embassy get tortured, once they are in the hands of China, I hope God has mercy with the trapped students. Nobody deserves to get tortured.

[tifino]

so what happens if there are the other unseen unfortunates have already begun their own one-way trip?

 - the cops openly exterminating students, like insects 

 

and just wait till the cops gets home!!

 

 

[TTL2]

18 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Well, that put a stink into their plans. This is not going to end well.

They watched too much English movies such as The Shawshank Redemption whereby the guy dug up the wall and gone out escape from the ???? hole filled with ???? and urine.
No offense but that's what individuals got when they followed the old school western movie which does not defy the fact that new construction of septic sewer tank had improved for the past 50 years.
A student is always a student and immature in nature. Never a smart individuals. Just another punks and confused individuals.

[Traubert]

10 hours ago, yuyiinthesky said:

More about that: BBC: Simon Cheng tortured in China

 

If even innocent observers working for the UK embassy get tortured, once they are in the hands of China, I hope God has mercy with the trapped students. Nobody deserves to get tortured.

Oh, the Simon Chang that got lifted for soliciting prostitution in Shenzhen? Jumped the border for a jump? Well it is half the price it is in Hong Kong. Thrifty lad our Simon. Refused to admit what he'd been nicked for? That Simon Chang? Quickly shuffled out of the diplomatic service after his release?

 

Naturally he's innocent. Anyone arrested for skullduggery in China always is. Right?

[yuyiinthesky]

On 11/22/2019 at 12:58 AM, Traubert said:

Naturally he's innocent.

Glad to see that also you understood that the accusations for "soliciting prostitution" are just the cover to give an excuse for his kidnapping and torture. Simon Cheng's employers in the UK embassy also understood it, and expressed that very clearly (as you can read in the article).

Interesting that you know that "soliciting prostitution in Shenzhen  ..  is half the price it is in Hong Kong." You've been there? Done that? Why didn't they "nick" you then?

If "soliciting prostitution" would be a fair reason for arresting and torturing in Thailand, then most expats in Thailand would be, as you say it "thrifty lads", and in danger ???? ???? ???? 

[Traubert]

7 hours ago, yuyiinthesky said:

Glad to see that also you understood that the accusations for "soliciting prostitution" are just the cover to give an excuse for his kidnapping and torture. Simon Cheng's employers in the UK embassy also understood it, and expressed that very clearly (as you can read in the article).

Interesting that you know that "soliciting prostitution in Shenzhen  ..  is half the price it is in Hong Kong." You've been there? Done that? Why didn't they "nick" you then?

If "soliciting prostitution" would be a fair reason for arresting and torturing in Thailand, then most expats in Thailand would be, as you say it "thrifty lads", and in danger ???? ???? ???? 

I won't even address the personal slur which is about three stories lower than a snakes belly but only to be expected I guess, judging by your posting history. Your 'if' is totally irrelevant too.

 

When our Simon was asked during his interview with the BBC in total safety in London if he had paid for sex in Shenzhen, why did he refuse to answer?