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Protesters in Guy Fawkes masks clash with police in first scuffles in two weeks
ABC Radio Australia - November 6, 2014
Dozens of police armed with batons and shields swept into the area where hundreds of protesters were gathered and scuffles broke out in the gritty district that has become a flashpoint for street brawls.
About 100 Guy Fawkes protesters marched through the district late on Wednesday night, joining the demonstrators who were calling for greater democracy in the former British colony. Three men were arrested after the scuffle, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
Meanwhile, about 50 people in Guy Fawkes masks gathered in the main protest site in Admiralty, chanting "I want genuine universal suffrage", before dispersing through Hong Kong's central business district, according to SCMP.
Some police officers followed the dispersed protesters and ordered them not to stay on the road. SCMP says some of the mask-wearing protesters returned to the protest site after 1am.
The protests marked Guy Fawkes Night on November 5, which commemorates the foiling of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London in 1605. Guy Fawkes has become a symbol for anti-capitalist protests, and has been adopted by online hacktivist group Anonymous.
The protesters, led by a restive generation of students, have been demanding China's Communist Party rulers live up to constitutional promises to grant full democracy to the city which returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Students hoping to take protest to Beijing
In August, Beijing offered Hong Kong people the chance to vote for their own leader in 2017, but said only two to three candidates could run after getting backing from a 1,200-person "nominating committee" stacked with Beijing loyalists.
On Wednesday, Regina Ip, a former Hong Kong security chief and a top adviser to the city's embattled leader, proposed members of the Hong Kong Federation of Students be given seats on the committee, broadcaster RTHK reported.
Students are hoping to take their protest to Communist Party rulers in Beijing and are set to announce details of their new battle plan.
Pro-democracy activists plan to march on Sunday from the heart of the city's financial centre to the Chinese central government's liaison office in Hong Kong.
For more than a month, key roads leading into Hong Kong's most economically and politically important districts have been barricaded with wood and steel by protesters.
The protests drew well over 100,000 at their peak and are now concentrated in two key areas – the district of Admiralty next to government buildings and across the harbour in Mong Kok.
A handful of protesters remain in the bustling shopping district of Causeway Bay.
Hong Kong leader Leung Chunying signalled on Tuesday that a much-anticipated plan to link the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets had been delayed as a result of the protests.
He urged society to pull together to restore order in the city.
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