British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab today considered the situation in Hong Kong “worrying” and renewed his desire for an independent investigation into the clashes in the former British colony between police and pro-democracy protesters.
“The solution to the current situation in Hong Kong is clear: all sides must invest in dialogue and reconciliation, supported by robust and independent investigation. It is up to the Hong Kong government to recognize not only the economic causes of the protests, but also the concerns of its people about their freedoms and values, ”he writes in the preface to a report published today.
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Hong Kong last year, with clashes between some of the protesters and the police, marked by the use of incendiary bombs, tear gas and projectile fire, the overwhelmingly non-lethal.
Demonstrations against a controversial extradition law, meanwhile removed, have resulted in thousands of arrests, including prominent activists and deputies, and of wounded, with deaths associated with the clashes.
Recently, there have been new protests over the proposed security law, which allows punishing authors of “any act of treason, separation, rebellion, subversion” against Beijing, including foreign organizations responsible for political interference.
The United Kingdom and other countries have publicly criticized this diploma for considering that it puts at risk the autonomy of the former British colony, which passed to the administration of China in 1997.
In the report, published semi-annually on the situation in Hong Kong, Raab said that the government considers the April arrest of 15 pro-democracy activists on April 18 for an alleged illegal meeting to be “very worrying”.
“We hope that any judicial process in these cases, as in any other case, will be conducted in a fair and transparent manner (…). It remains to be seen how the proposed national security legislation, if enacted, will affect the rule of law in Hong Kong, ”he said.
