Since Sunday, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is besieged by the police.
Several hundreds or even thousands of people found themselves thus caught in a real mousetrap, without supplies, and without access to care for the wounded.
The immediate goal of the police is to be able to arrest and then convict a large number of people for rioting. Sentences can be up to 10 years in prison.
The ultimate goal is to end the revolt that has shaken Hong Kong for more than 5 months. This revolt is based on the desire of the great majority of the population to safeguard and extend their democratic rights, and in particular to elect the leaders of the territory by universal suffrage.
Stubbornly refusing to meet the democratic demands of the population, while wanting to avoid the inconvenience of a direct intervention by its army, the Beijing government decided to send the Hong Kong police to the front.
The police forces have recently been reinforced for this purpose by prison staff who have already repressed revolts in prison. Among other means, they use powerful "water cannons” made in France (at Saint-Nazaire), which project a highly toxic and indelible blue liquid.
The NPA fully supports the demands of the vast majority of Hong Kong’s population, including:
– The immediate lifting of the siege of the Polytechnic University.
– No prosecution against those arrested.
– An independent inquiry commission on police violence.
– The advent of universal suffrage, officially promised since 1984.
New Anticapitalist Party (NPA), Paris, November 19, 2019