Hong Kong student fortress crisis gets last minute UN effort
Fox News correspondent Jonathan Hunt reports from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University where protesters had been engaged in a standoff with police and where remaining protesters, armed with make-shift weapons, prepare for a last stand.
The U.N. human rights office is calling on authorities in Hong Kong to do all they can to de-escalate a standoff between security forces and anti-government protesters holed up in a university.
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The spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, said it is concerned about increasing violence by young people “who are clearly very angry, with deep-seated grievances.”
A protester stands on a bridge near the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong. Anti-government protesters are occupying Hong Kong Polytechnic University after retreating from the other campuses where they had held demonstrations last week. T(AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)
Protesters go down the steps at the front entrance of Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong in attempt to flee.(AP Photo/Raf Wober)
Police in riot gear move through a cloud of smoke as they detain a protester at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Monday, Nov. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (AP)
Riot police detain protesters near Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Monday, Nov. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Colville told reporters in Geneva that most protesters have been demonstrating peacefully, and that authorities had “by and large” respected the right to freedom of assembly.
He urged Hong Kong authorities to “address the humanitarian situation” of protesters at Polytechnic University whose situation was “clearly deteriorating.”
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He said the rights office remains concerned about a possible further escalation of violence in Hong Kong.