- Title: Amnesty urges Hong Kong government to protect citizens' rights
- Date: 24th September 2019
- Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (FILE - JULY 1, 2017) (AGENCY POOL) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** HONG KONG LEADER GREETING CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING VARIOUS LAM AND XI SEATED IN THE ROOM XI SPEAKING LAM SPEAKING
- Embargoed: 8th October 2019 11:30
- Keywords: Hong Kong Amnesty interview police
- Location: HONG KONG, CHINA
- City: HONG KONG, CHINA
- Country: Hong Kong
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Civil Unrest
- Reuters ID: LVA002AY0M6VB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Human rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday (September 24) urged the Hong Kong government to protect the rights of its citizens in the Chinese-ruled city.
"We can see a common thread running through, that the Hong Kong government is failing to facilitate, failing to allow its, allow peaceful assembly, to allow critical political speech, because of the concern that somehow this would be violating the one country, two systems principle which is new," Joshua Rosenzweig, head of Amnesty's East Asia regional office told Reuters.
In a report released on Tuesday, Amnesty also urged the Hong Kong government to investigate police use of force during the nearly four months of protests.
Rosenzweig said that only an independent inquiry into police actions, as protesters have called for, will "have some sort of satisfaction on the part of the Hong Kong people."
What started as protests over a now-shelved extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial have evolved into broader calls for greater democracy and an independent inquiry into police actions.
Demonstrators are frustrated at what they see as Beijing's tightening grip over the former British colony, which returned to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula intended to guarantee freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.
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