Review sought on police conduct during protests
Legislators have called for an independent review of the way police handled the WTO protests in December. Members of the Legislative Council's security panel were also unhappy with the lack of details provided by the police yesterday.
At the meeting, police revealed how many weapons they had used to control the protests - six beanbag bullets, 34 tear gas canisters, and more than 700 canisters of pepper spray. Police said other controversial issues, such as the alleged mistreatment of the arrested protesters, were being investigated separately.
The police fended off accusations that they had made politically motivated arrests during the WTO demonstrations. Legislators Albert Ho Chun-yan and 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung questioned the decision to arrest more than 900 people during the worst of the rioting on December 17.
WTO talks top political story of 2005, poll finds
The WTO Ministerial Conference was rated the biggest government-related news in Hong Kong last year. More than 78,000 of 100,000 voters picked the global conference. Nearly 73,000 voted for the election of Donald Tsang Yam-kuen as the chief executive. Liu Yongbi, deputy proprietor of Wen Wei Po, which organised the poll, said the number of voters was 42 per cent higher than last year.
