The roll call of injured officers gets longer for Hong Kong's police and security forces, though the weaponry they're facing isn't exactly heavy calibre. Two police officers were sent to hospital yesterday after corn flour sprinkled at a protest outside the central government's liaison office got in their eyes. They join the traffic officer who collapsed after being slapped by Amina Bokhary, and a liaison office security officer who claimed assault after being sprayed with droplets of champagne. No one was arrested in the incident at yesterday's protest by about 10 people who called for the release of melamine-scandal activist Zhao Lianhai, who is in jail on the mainland. About 30 police officers were deployed to keep order outside the liaison office in Western District. The protesters drizzled most of them with the corn flour, meant to symbolise infant formula, contained in a two-litre bottle and a plastic bag. Two officers got hit in the eye and were taken to hospital after saying they were feeling unwell. Dr Lo Wing-lok said it was unlikely the spill did any damage to the officers. He said corn flour and other similar starch products did not cause pain or harm the eyes. 'Eyes are very sensitive,' Lo, a former Legco representative, said. 'But corn flour, even after mixing with eye fluid, would only form a non-irritant, non-corrosive sticky paste.' Junior Police Officers' Association chairman Gary Wong Ching said the medical checks were a necessary precaution. 'We could not know the constituents of the powder on spot, even if the protesters claimed the substance to be harmless,' he said. 'Only medical proof counts.' Andrew To Kwan-hang, chairman of protest organiser, the League of Social Democrats, said the protesters had not meant to target the police officers. 'We wanted to submit our petition and the bottle of corn flour - as a prop symbolising the tainted milk - to the representatives of the liaison office,' he said. 'But they refused to accept it and scuffles occurred. Then the powder spilled out.' To said the officers' overcautious reaction, together with possible arrests over the incident, were aimed at suppressing freedom of expression. Lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan, a frequent protester at the liaison office, said the medical checks were 'acting'. 'Because it was the liaison office, the officers are amplifying every single incident to threaten the protesters,' he said. Lee was acquitted last week of unlawful assembly during a protest outside the office last Christmas calling for the release of mainland dissident Liu Xiaobo . It was in January that a traffic officer collapsed after being slapped by Bokhary, niece of Mr Justice Kemal Bokhary, during a traffic stop. In October, 22-year-old activist Ip Ho-yee was arrested for common assault - but later released - for spraying sparkling wine at a liaison office security guard during a celebration marking the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu.
