Hong Kong court bans protesters from police housing areas

A court in Hong Kong has granted an injunction to ban anyone from blocking or damaging housing areas for married police officers and other people in the uniformed services that have been targeted in more than four months of anti-government protests.

Demonstrators have besieged police quarters amid escalating violence in the Chinese-ruled city, hurling petrol bombs and other objects at buildings and damaging facilities, police said in a statement on Tuesday.

The injunction also prohibits the obstruction of roads and bans people from shining laser pens or other flash lights at police facilities.

Anti-government protesters, many masked and wearing black, have thrown petrol bombs at police and central government offices, stormed the Legislative Council (Legco), blocked roads to the airport, vandalised metro stations and lit fires on the city’s streets.

Police have responded with tear gas, water cannon, rubber-coated bullets, bean-bag rounds and several live rounds, warning the crowds beforehand with a series of coloured banners.

Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday livelihood issues were the most important priority for her administration and the government should consider “every means” to end the violence.

Lam is due to present her annual policy address to Legco on Wednesday with the protesters insisting the government agree to all five of their demands including the right to elect their own leader and an independent inquiry into accusations of police brutality.

Police insist they have shown restraint. 

Protests continue

Tens of thousands of mostly young pro-democracy activists pleaded for help from the United States on Monday evening in the first legal protest since the introduction of colonial-era emergency laws earlier this month.

The protests began in opposition to an extradition bill that would have allowed suspects to be sent to China for trial, but have broadened into a pro-democracy movement amid fears that Beijing is undermining Hong Kong’s freedoms. The bill is due to be formally withdrawn this week.

Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula, which gives it wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.

The Hong Kong and Chinese governments have repeatedly warned foreign governments not interfere in the territory’s internal affairs or fan anti-China sentiment.