Hong Kong police clear smaller protest zone

HONG KONG – Riot police cleared an offshoot Hong Kong pro-democracy protest zone in a dawn raid today, taking down barricades, tents and canopies that have blocked key streets for more than two weeks, but leaving the city’s main thoroughfare still in the hands of the activists.

Hundreds of officers, some in helmets and shields, descended in the early morning on the busy district of Mong Kok, a smaller protest zone across the Victoria Harbor from the main occupied area in the city’s financial district. The key thoroughfare in Admiralty, near the heart of the city’s financial district, remained occupied by protesters.

The operation – the third in recent days by police to retake streets from protesters – came hours after Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying sought to defuse a bitter standoff with student-led democracy protesters by reviving an offer of talks over democratic reforms in the city.

However, Leung warned police wouldn’t refrain from clearing protest sites while holding talks and the latest operation is likely to make it harder to resolve the crisis with protesters, who already were angered by a video of a group of officers beating a handcuffed activist.

Officers swiftly tore down metal barricades, bamboo and wooden planks used by protesters to block off the streets as well as tarps covering their main campsite in the middle of a four-way intersection.

Leung said Thursday the protests, which have disrupted traffic in key roads and streets in three business districts since Sept. 26, could not go on indefinitely. Protesters are pressing for a greater say in choosing the semiautonomous Chinese city’s leader in an inaugural direct election, promised for 2017. Tensions have escalated in the past few days as riot police armed with pepper spray and batons clashed with activists.

Leung said government is ready to meet with student leaders as soon as next week, but urged them to be pragmatic, reiterating that Beijing will not change its mind on election restrictions. That raised doubts that the proposed meeting can overcome the vast differences between the two sides.