Hong Kong protests: fund distributing HK$243 million to demonstrators announces disbandment
- 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund supports protesters with legal bills, medical expenses flowing from 2019 unrest
- Fund’s closure forced by disbandment of another opposition group, which provided a bank account for donations
They said winding down the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund was unavoidable once they had been notified of a separate decision to fold the Alliance for True Democracy, which provided its bank account to trustees for holding donations.
“It is impossible for the fund to open its own bank account, or ask the other organisations to provide us their account, under the current political environment,” barrister Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, one of the fund’s trustees, said on Wednesday.
“We truly appreciate the help from the alliance in the past. As we hold similar beliefs, we did not ask the alliance for their reason to disband.”
In a separate statement on Wednesday, the alliance said it would not make any further comment.
The planned dissolution of both the alliance and the 612 fund follows the same action taken last week by the pro-opposition Professional Teachers’ Union, and the Civil Human Rights Front, an umbrella group which organised the city’s largest marches during the 2019 social unrest.
