Taipei, Jan. 9 (CNA) Activists and student groups launched a demonstration at the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) Taiwan Office for the fifth time Monday to push Hong Kong authorities to acquit all anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) protesters accused of violating their assembly law.
HKTB Taiwan Office did not offer response.
Fourteen anti-WTO protesters, mostly South Koreans, were released on bail with a restriction on departure on Dec. 23 last year in Hong Kong after being charged with taking part in an illegal assembly during the WTO Hong Kong ministerial meeting. Only two of them were allowed to leave Hong Kong on a surety of HK$100,000, including one Taiwan university student, but both of them are required to return to Hong Kong to stand trial.
Twelve of the 14 accused -- 11 South Koreans and a Japanese reporter -- were forced to stay in Hong Kong and wait for the third and final trial on Jan. 11, said Lai Hsiang-ling, the general secretary of the Solidarity Front of Women Workers who led the demonstration.
The demonstrators claimed that the Hong Kong government failed to find any evidence to substantiate its charge against the defendants. Therefore, they said, the Hong Kong government should acquitted all the accused as soon as possible.
Lai pointed out half of the demonstrators on site also attended the anti-WTO protest in Hong Kong last December.
"It was not a riot. We were not rioters. But now Hong Kong, which was known as 'the Pearl of the Orient', has become 'the Prison of the Orient' because of what Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang did to those poor protesters, " she said.
About 30 protesters gathered in front of the building where HKTB is located and chanted, "It's not guilty to fight against violence. Acquit the political prisoners, " and "Down, down WTO" under the observing eyes of the city police, who announced that it was an illegal demonstration without prior notification to police as soon as the protest started.
Protesters tried to break into the police security line and enter the building three to four times to no avail. They threw the protest letters toward the policemen before dispersion.
Lai commented on the total ignorance of the HKTS to the protest, "This has been the fifth time we come here after the demonstration in Hong Kong. HKTS keeps hiding in the office and offers no response. To me it shows HKTS only wants to take money out of pockets of Taiwanese through tourism and doesn't care about human rights."
"We are here as part of a simultaneous protest that also takes place in South Korea, Japan and other countries today to call for the acquittal of those defendants, " Lai said. "About 1,000 South Korean farmers plan to go to Hong Kong and stage another protest again if the Jan. 11 trial rules the defendants are guilty."
She added, "They won't be alone. We are ready to join them if it is the way it has to be."
The group later went to Taipei Main Station and launched a three-day fund-raising event from Jan. 9-11 to help the South Korean defendants. "They are all poor people who even had to borrow money to go to Hong Kong. Now they're having trouble to pay for the accomodation and food because of the charge, " Lai said.
"The WTO makes the rich get richer and the poor become poorer. It's the biggest problem," Lai said on a final note.