PUBLISHED : Thursday, 11 December, 2014, 8:14am
UPDATED : Thursday, 11 December, 2014, 11:00am
Good morning and welcome to scmp.com'slive coverage of the police operation to clear the remaining Occupy sites, after 74 days of protest. The clearance operation has started and police have warned that anyone still in the Admiralty protest zone after 11am will be arrested.
10.55am: Singer Denise Ho has joined the sit-in near to the clearance area.
I'll wait to be arrested. There's not much of a plan - just sit here," she said. "But this is part of my responsibility as an adult of celebrity, to fill the responsibility of civil disobedience."
10.50am: In Causeway Bay about 20 occupiers remain. Some expect their numbers to be boosted by those moved on from Admiralty.
"Last night we started to move some important resources away from the occupied area," said Limbo Kong, a 21-year-old occupier who spent the night at the site. While he refused to reveal what sorts of resources have been removed, a first aid volunteer said some medical supplies had been moved to a safe spot nearby.
"We are afraid of any loss of supplies. I heard that there were some first aid stations asked to leave in two minutes by the police," said Titus So.
Ron Hung said he would take the clearance "naturally". However, he said he was not prepared to be arrested. "I will not wait for the police to arrest me. My motto is 'no injury, no arrest'," said Hung.
10.40am: Piece by piece the barricades are being dismantled and all is peaceful at the moment. It's a laborious task, with dozens of workers using cutters to separate the barriers, which are held together with tape, cable ties and even bicycle locks.
10.30am: The clearance has started. Men wearing hard hats, gloves and orange vests have started snipping away at the thousands of cable ties used to hold metal and plastic barriers together. The workers are surrounded by dozens od journalist and cameramen. the first barriers on Connaught Road have been removed.
League of Social Democrats Leung Kwok-hung has given an emotional speech.
"The government can't arrest all seven million of us. We have not failed. We have taken Hong Kong's political progress to a new level," he said. "In 1989, the Communist Party made use of tanks and machine guns to clear Tiananmen. Today the international community is watching the movement closely and so they cannot do the same thing."
10.25am: Cleaning crews are being briefed about the clearance and some protesters are busy retreiving artworks that have been displayed in the Occupy zone.
Police watchdog observers Eric Cheung Tat-Ming and Christine Fong Mang-seng have been seen strolling around the site. Cheung said all IPCC members would leave the site and return for the meeting in Wan Chai which starts at 3.45pm if there was no indication that things would turn ugly.
There are now some 70 people sitting at the junction of Tim Wa Avenue and Harcourt Road, knowing they are likely to be arrested.
Among them is Cassio Tang Ngo-yin, a year-three engineering student at the City University. "I don't have any criminal record so I can take this risk," she said. "A lot of people know about this Occupy movement, but yet they just keep living their lives. I want to do something to wake them up."
9.50am: About 20 police vans, two trucks carrying cranes and three carrying water tanks are parked outside City Hall, along Connaught Road and Edinburgh Place.
Democratic party founder Martin Lee Chu-ming, sitting with other legislators, said: "They either arrest us or, if not we will surrender ourselves, because I said right from the beginning of the Occupy Central movement that is something I would do. I decided not to join the other three organisers to surrender because the movement had not come to an end. It will come to an endtoday."
9.40am: A dozen university academics have arrived at the site in their gowns, saying they will act as observers to monitor any police brutality. "We will stay until the very end if possible," said Shu Kei (pictured), of the Academy of Performing Arts.
Another dozen members of Hong Kong Shield, formed by more than 50 local cultural figures including Canto-pop singer Denise Ho Wan-see, will also act as observers.
9.30am: Bailiffs and their police and press entourage are approaching Tim Wa Avenue. The flyover is packed with people craning their necks to see what is going on below. Some 10 police officers armed with batons and shields have set up a perimeter behind the bailiffs. One is carrying a warning banner telling people to leave the area, which protesters have seen a lot of in recent weeks.
9.25am: The Federation of Students and Scholarism have made a joint call for those prepared to "stay until the very end" to gather near Tim Wa Avenue.
Alex Chow Yong-kang of HKFS has appealed to those wishing to leave before 11am to gather at the adjacent Tamar Park.
"There are still many occasions for the movement [to regroup] in future," Chow said, citing examples such as the expected voting for the political reform package at the Legislative Council in March or April, or when senior officials visit the community.
At the intersection of Tim Wa Avenue and Harcourt Road, Apple Daily boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and several Democratic Party legislators are sitting in front of a banner calling for democracy.
Civic Party lawmaker Claudia Mo Man-ching, said: "I'm feeling very traumatised. I understand things would need to come to an end sometime, somehow and it's happening now. Except it is the end of not just a news story but chapter in history.
"But I'm not saying that it's this is the end of the campaign or the movement, absolutely not. You've seen the little posts and bills saying "we will be back", but the question is who, when and where? We need to get that organised, orchestrated and we will fight on. I may sound romantic but this is a political awakening and this will not go away for generations to come. So this is our biggest achievement."
9.20am: Things are starting to happen in Admiralty. Bailiffs, accompanied by a police escort, are telling people on Connaught Road to leave and warning Occupy crowds that all obstacles blocking the road will be cleared away. Police officers, some wearing helmets and acarrying shields, are standing next to City Hall.
Police earlier this morning warned that anyone getting in the way of the clearance could be held in contempt of court.
9.10am: A few pictures from the Admiralty site this morning:
8.55am: So what is next for the Occupy movement? Since the clearance of the protest site in Mong Kok, demonstrators in Kowloon have taken to "going shopping".
But what exactly does this form of spontaneous, leaderless protest involve?
Click here to find out: The game changes - as Occupy sites are cleared, Hong Kong's democracy protesters go 'shopping'
8.45am: In a sign that Occupy protesters plan to continue the fight for democracy, the message 'we will be back' has popped up across the Admiralty site, painted on banners, scrawled on walls and drawn on the roads.
Several pan democrat lawmakers, including Albert Ho, Emily Lau, Lee Cheuk-Yan are sitting at the intersection of Harcourt Road and Tim Wa Avenue. Jimmy Lai is also present, as is student leader Alex Chow.
Some volunteers are handing out helmets, goggles, masks and first-aid supplies, suggesting that some may resist police efforts.
8.40am: Protesters are largely telling SCMPreporters at the scene that they will leave quietly and not defy the 11am police deadline for them to clear out.
"It's quite pointless to get ourselves arrested now when we've yet to achieve anything," said a journalism student of Baptist University, surnamed Hui.
"Perhaps it makes sense for the student leaders or public figures to wait to being arrested since police probably dare not be too rough on them. But it won't be the same for us," added student protester Mak Kei.
8.10am: Some protesters have left messages for the police and bailiffs, hoping to prick their collective conscience when the clearance begins. Unlike other days, when police would be sitting quietly at their posts on Tim Wa Avenue next to government headquarters, today they are on their feet and alert.
Wong Chak-chong, a 22-year-old student, has been in Admiralty all night, said he was unsure whether he would stay to watch the clearance.
"I'm very frustrated because it seems like once the area is cleared, we'll be smeared, people will just think we took over the roads and now the whole thing is over, without paying any attention to what we've been saying.
"They might just remember us as the rabble who took over roads. I wish someone could tell me how to keep this going. I'm despairing right now."
8am: Thousands of people visited the Occupy site in Admiralty overnight, to take a last wander along the car-less streets and to take photographs of what will soon be swept away. In a mass operation police are expected this morning to remove barricades, tents and artwork created by the protesters. While there will be tears from some quarters, others will be delighted at the re-opening of the roads.
Demonstrators have so far been unclear as to their next steps, but many overnight said they believed that the movement had already achieved a great deal, in gaining international recognition, forcing the government to start a dialogue and uniting Hongkongers in their determination for true democracy.
