A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, April 27, 2017
Hong Kong: Police pick up 2 disqualified lawmakers for ‘questioning’
26th April 2017
HONG KONG police
on Wednesday arrested two disqualified pro-independence legislators for
unlawful assembly over an effort to force their way into a Legislative
Council meeting in November, their political party said.
Yau Wai-ching, 25, and Baggio Leung, 30, were picked up at their homes
early in the morning and taken to a police station for questioning,
Youngspiration said in a statement.
Their assistants and a few volunteers were also arrested, it added,
without elaborating. The activists were still in the police station on
Wednesday afternoon. Police did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
“There may be dark days ahead, there may be more arrests and legal
challenges, but we shall struggle against evil on the streets, in the
courts, within the community and on every media platform,”
Youngspiration said.
The democratically elected pair, who represent a new breed of more
radical activists moving into the political mainstream, had their
swearing-in oaths invalidated last October after they used language
deemed derogatory to China and displayed a banner declaring “Hong Kong is not China”.
The issue of independence, for long taboo, has gained momentum since
pro-democracy protests in late 2014, which paralysed parts of the Asian
financial centre, failed to wrangle concessions from Communist Party
rulers in Beijing.
The detentions are likely to reinforce concern among democracy activists about interference by Beijing in Hong Kong‘s affairs, despite a system meant to guarantee the financial hub’s autonomy.
In March, nine leaders of the 2014 democracy protests were charged with inciting the street occupation.
The nine were charged just a day after a new Beijing-backed leader,
Carrie Lam, was chosen as the city’s next leader, seen by many as a
worrying sign after she had vowed to heal divisions in the Chinese-ruled
city and unite society.
In October, the president of the legislature delayed the second
swearing-in of Yau and Leung and temporarily banned them from attending
meetings, an unprecedented move that followed weeks of pressure from
factions loyal to Beijing.
China’s Parliament in November passed a ruling that effectively barred
the pair from taking office, Beijing’s most direct intervention in the
territory’s legal and political system since the 1997 handover.
A Hong Kong court later disqualified the two from taking office, ruling their oath of allegiance invalid.
Hong Kong,
a former British colony, returned to China in 1997 under a “one
country, two systems” agreement that ensured its freedoms and
wide-ranging autonomy, including a separate legal system.
But Communist Party rulers in Beijing have ultimate control, stepping in to interpret the Basic Law, Hong Kong‘s constitution, and some residents are concerned they are increasingly interfering to head off dissent. – Reuters