Students plan one last sit-in to mark the end of Occupy as clearance looms
Student groups call for calm and pledge no physical resistance as police plan their operation to clear Occupy protest sites
Student leaders at the core of the two-month-long Occupy protests say they will not put up any physical resistance to the police's clearance operation in Admiralty tomorrow, which they expect will mark the end of the occupation.
Alex Chow Yong-kang, secretary general of the Federation of Students, said his group would sit at the protest site to wait for the police to come along with court bailiffs.
While the bailiffs will execute an injunction covering one-fifth of the Admiralty camp, police said they would start clearing the entire camp and the Causeway Bay site tomorrow, deploying 7,000 officers in two shifts.
"We will sit outside the injunction area. We will stay true to the spirit of civil disobedience - remain peaceful and bear the legal consequences of our action," Chow said yesterday, a week after the federation's failed bid to blockade government headquarters. Government staff have been told not to go to the offices in Admiralty tomorrow.
The federation will ask those who have reservations about the plan to leave the site. But it wants those willing to face legal consequences for taking part in the movement to return to Admiralty tomorrow morning. The sit-in would "mark the end of this phase of the occupation", he said.
Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the leader of student group Scholarism who went on hunger strike for over 100 hours last week, also called for calm. "We respect the rule of law and we will remain non-violent," he said.
Wong disagreed with the plan of some protesters to clash with police, saying "protesters' gear is no match for the police".