[APWSLMembers 137] message from Franklen

[YAMASAKI Seiichi]

Urgent appeal by the Hong Kong support group for Anti-WTO protest detainees

Dear friends,

We write to request your immediate solidarity action against the Hong Kong
government's mass arrest and violence against the anti-WTO demonstrators on the
17th
and 18th of December 2005.

Currently, 14 male demonstrators including 11 Koreans, 1 Japanese, 1 Chinese,
and 1
Taiwanese are still held in police custody and will be up for trial this Friday,
the
23rd of December.

As members of various international and local Hong Kong civil society groups, we
strongly condemn the mass arrests and crackdown against WTO demonstrators. We
assert
the legitimacy of protest, and continue to support and call for the
unconditional
release of those who are still detained. We call for better treatment of
detainees,
and demand an apology from the Hong Kong authorities for their actions.

Various solidarity actions, listed below, have been planned for Hong Kong. We
call
for international solidarity actions on and before the 23rd of December. Please
find
below background information and further suggested actions including a sample
email.
We urge you to contact the Hong Kong authorities today and call for the
detainees to
be released and the charges to be dropped!

Updates and more information can be found the website of the Hong Kong Peoples
Alliance on the WTO: http://www.hkpa-wto.org/

For more information, please contact:

HKPA Documentation Team
hkpa.documentation at gmail.com



/Further Local Action:/


   1. Starting at 4:00pm on the 21st of December a member of the Korean Peasant
League will bow 3000 times in front of Kwun Tong District Court, Kowloon.

   2. Local activists will continue a hunger strike, started upon initial
arrests on
the 18th of December.

   3. Symbolic visits to the three detention centers where detainees are being
held
will take place during the day of 22nd of December for Winter Festival. Tong
Yuen
desserts will be brought as a gesture of reunification.

   4. A candlelight vigil will be held on the evening on the 22nd of December at
SOGO
pedestrian zone from 9:00pm to 11:00pm. ( *photo attached*)

   5. A solidarity demonstration outside of Kwun Tong District Court will be
held on
the 23rd of December starting at 11:00am.



/Suggested International Action:/


   1. Please contact the Hong Kong authorities to demand that those in custody
be
released, and that the charges be dropped.

   2. Please send Hong Kong People's Alliance, at hkpa.documentation at gmail.com,
your
message of solidarity to be used during the local demonstration at Kwun Tong
District
Court on the 23rd of December.

   3. Please arrange international protests on or before the 23rd of December at
your
local Chinese embassy.



/Background:/


On December 17 the Hong Kong police arrested hundreds of activists who were
trying to
reach the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in a demonstration to
protest
against the policies of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). At around 5:00 pm,
they
were stopped by the police, who used pepper spray, water hoses and eventually,
tear
gas, to disperse them. Many demonstrators were injured and some were
hospitalized.

Reports from the legal support group and those arrested reveal that many have
been
mishandled or beaten by the police and were denied medical aid, food, water and
bathroom facilities.

By now most arrested have been released, but the HK government sent 14
demonstrators
to court on 19th of December charging them with unlawful assembly under the HK
Public
Order Ordinance. These people include 11 Koreans, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Japanese and 1
mainland Chinese (names listed below). The judge rejected bail out requests.
They are
now in police custody pending trial on the 23rd of December. The police might
charge
them with more serious offences.

Those persons still detained:

HWANG, DAE SUB Korean Catholic Farmers Association
YANG, KYOUNG KYU Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
KANG, SEUNG KYU Korean Peasants League
LEE, YOUNG HOON Korean Peasants League
PARK, IN HWAN Korean Peasants League
YOON, IL KWON Korean Pea
>
> --
> Franklen K. S. Choi (also known as gullit)
> Senior Researcher
> The Social and Economic Policy Institute
> http://www.sepi.org/
>
>
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