government -- accusing police of allowing the violence to unfold.
"The path of conversation
should be put aside now. The government is not honoring its promise and
it should be held accountable first," the Hong Kong Federation of
Students said in a statement.
Students had hoped to
meet with the No. 2 official in Hong Kong's government, Chief Secretary
Carrie Lam, in an effort to resolve the political crisis that has
gripped the semi-autonomous Chinese territory for a week.
Pro-democracy activists
accuse Beijing of exerting too much influence on Hong Kong and are
demanding the right to directly choose candidates for elected office and
other reforms.
But protest leader Edward
Tsoi said that after some student protesters had been beaten and others
sexually molested as police stood by and watched, protesters had lost
all faith in government officials.
"The government and the police have done nothing to stop them," he told CNN.
Alex Chow, the secretary
general of the student federation, said Friday's unrest was organized
"with the intention to cause chaos to allow police to clear activists
there."
A police spokesman
rejected the protesters' claims, saying police had tried to fairly and
neutrally manage a chaotic situation that got out of hand.
The official, Kong
Man-keung, told reporters Friday that police were struggling to deal
with a quickly developing situation and had done their best.
He reiterated requests for protesters to disperse, but protest leaders said they would do nothing of the sort.
"Now, the government is
declaring that it will stand firm in clearing the occupied areas," the
student federation said in its statement. "And we ask Hong Kong people
to come and protest all these areas and we will fight to the end and
we're not going to succumb."
Source:CNN
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