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All Hong Kong was there. According to the organizers, two million people said it was nine hours before the gigantic size of the march to be able to offer this figure. The third demonstration in a week against the draft law on extradition was the most important by far. It has doubled last Sunday 's participation and is the most gigantic of Hong Kong' s recent history: 28% of the seven million inhabitants participated. Eight hours after the beginning of the course, the line had not come to an end yet. The number of police officers is smaller, 338,000 people. But he also increases participation in his estimate last Sunday and admits that he understands only the official route, not the hundreds of thousands of people who have taken parallel paths because of the lack of physical space on the specified route. If Carrie Lam, the chief minister of self-government, thought that he would disable citizen protests by announcing Saturday the suspension of the extradition bill, the citizen told him that he was completely wrong .
After midnight, tens of thousands of people were still concentrated on the Avenue in front of the Hong Kong Autonomous Parliament, as tens of thousands of young people had Wednesday to encircle the seat of the legislature and prevent the treatment of the law debated. For the first time, he would allow the delivery of suspects to China. The use of the police force, excessively condemned by the bar and human rights organizations, to dissolve these demonstrations had angered the indignant citizens, because the autonomous government had ignored their numerous demonstrations. .
"Carrie Lam, quit! Withdrawing the bill!", Shouted the participants at the event, which was held in an absolutely peaceful way. At the head of the march, disabled wheelchair. Behind them, the rest of the overwhelming human tide: children, elderly, Hongkones, foreigners, wealthy people, whole families. Groups who played drums. Young people with their faces covered with masks. Adults wearing black balloons. At times, simply by mere agglomeration, the march had to stop or advance centimeter by centimeter. People were still arriving from the subway to join the long, long dragon. Several stations had to close due to saturation.
Black was the color that everyone wore, the color chosen to symbolize the citizen's anger. The pain of the death of a young activist who died last night after hanging a protest sign at the top of a building.
Many wore white flowers – daisies, roses, lilies– to, at the time of the event, file a symbolic tribute to the place where the young man fell. Bobby, a 16 year old teenager who was attending a protest for the first time, was one of them. He was not present the previous Sunday, during which more than a million people left, but he decided to go to the scene of police violence Wednesday and hear about the death. "I realized that the government did not care about its citizens and that Carrie Lam was not listening to us, I thought I needed to come in for the government to know how I feel."
Like Bobby, many other protesters have expressed outrage against the head of the self-government, whom they are simply accusing of trying to gain time by suspending the treatment of the bill. "If it were sincere, I would remove it completely, but what he wants is that we close our mouth, go home and do what he wants." Well, you're going to find out that we do not have to shut up or go home, "said Annie, a 50-year-old banker who, armed with a pack of folios, wrote protest messages to the company. The intention of those who wanted to wear them during the demonstration. "This idea has come in. There is no leader, everyone contributes to what happens to this event and I thought about it," he explains.
Their posters reiterate the messages that citizens have repeatedly repeated over the past few days. "Do not shoot us", "We love our freedom", "Carrie Lam, go on", "No to the odious extradition law". Annie was in the demonstration a week ago, but she calculates that this Sunday is even bigger: "At that time there were fewer people, this time the government really angered the people."
The Chinese orbit
The demonstration a week ago had only one requirement, remove the draft law on extradition. Many Hong Kongers see it as an attempt to integrate Hong Kong into the orbit of mainland China and dilute the system of democracy and liberties promised by the former British colony until the end of the war. in 2047. On Sunday, there were five: paper garbage definitely the bill; official apology for police violence; commitment not to lodge a complaint against the protesters arrested during Wednesday's student demonstrations; Stop calling this concentration of "riots". And resignation of Lam.
Six hours after the start of the demonstration, the head of the government apologized in a statement. "The Chief Minister recognizes that shortcomings in the work of the government have sparked significant controversy and controversy in society, disappointing and saddening many people," said the document distributed by his office. Lam is also committed to "accept sincerely and humbly any criticism, to improve and serve the public". A very unusual step in the politics of Hong Kong or mainland China.
But it was too little and too late for protesters who remained concentrated around the legislative offices and the chief minister in central Hong Kong. Jimmy Sham, chairman of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Civil Rights Front – the group that convened Sunday's march – said the newspaper Morning of South China that Lam's statement does not meet the demands of the citizens. "The people of Hong Kong are not just asking for an apology and they have not responded to any of our five requests."
At this point, the queue of the protest was still halfway. In the pbad that pbades the Legislative Assembly, many protesters have written posters in different languages. "Courage, Hong Kong, stop shooting at our students!" On the way home, others booed the police at Wanchai Central Police Station, near the legislature, where many of the officers who accused the protesters on Wednesday left in clashes that left at least 81 injured. "Excuse me, excuse me!"
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