HONG KONG: A group of Hong Kong families on Saturday demanded the urgent return of their activist relatives detained last month by mainland Chinese authorities as they tried to flee the city by boat to Taiwan.
Relatives of six of the 12 detained activists donned masks and hats to shield their identities as they made their first public appeal for help and information on their plight, supported by several local pro-democracy politicians.
Some sobbed and wept as they issued several demands, including that those detained be allowed to consult lawyers appointed by the families and not the Chinese government and should be allowed to call their relatives in Hong Kong.
“I can’t imagine what’s the worst case scenario,” said a woman surnamed Li, whose son Li Tsz-yin, 29, is among those being held in a detention center in the southern city of Shenzhen.
They said they still had no information on the charges faced by their relatives, and the Hong Kong government had given no concrete assistance. A boy aged 16 is the youngest being held.
The Chinese Coast Guard Bureau said in a post on its social media site on Aug. 27 that it had arrested at least 10 people on Aug. 23 after intercepting a boat off the coast of the southern province of Guangdong.
Hong Kong media, citing unidentified sources, said the 12 were headed to Taiwan to apply for political asylum. Their arrests come as local activists and politicians fear a worsening clamp-down across the former British colony as a sweeping new national security law imposed by Beijing in July takes full effect.
Hours before the families’ appearance, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States was deeply concerned about the activists, saying they had been denied to access to lawyers and local authorities had not provided any information on their welfare or the charges against them.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said earlier this week that if they had been arrested for breaking mainland law “then they have to dealt with according to the mainland laws.”
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Families of captured Hong Kong activists demand their return from Chinese detention
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Families of captured Hong Kong activists demand their return from Chinese detention
- Relatives donned masks and hats to shield their identities
- Hong Kong media, citing unidentified sources, said the 12 were headed to Taiwan to apply for political asylum
Congo refugees recount death and chaos as war reignites
RUSIZI: Congolese refugees described neighbors being massacred and losing children in the chaos as they fled into Rwanda to escape a surge in fighting despite a peace deal brokered by US President Donald Trump.
“I have 10 kids, but I’m here with only three. I don’t know what happened to the other seven, or their father,” Akilimali Mirindi, 40, told AFP in the Nyarushishi refugee camp in Rwanda’s Rusizi district.
Around 1,000 Congolese have ended up in this camp after renewed fighting broke out in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this month.
The M23 armed group, backed by Rwanda, has seized vast swathes of eastern DRC over the past year and is once again on the march, taking another key city, Uvira, in recent days.
Thousands have fled as civilians are again caught in the crossfire between the M23, Congolese forces and their allies.
Mirindi was living in Kamanyola near the Rwanda border when bombs started falling, destroying her house.
“Many people died, young and old. I saw corpses as we fled, jumping over some of them. I made a decision to cross into Rwanda with the rest,” she said.
Trump hosted the presidents of Rwanda and DRC, Paul Kagame and Felix Tshisekedi, on December 4 for an agreement aimed at ending the conflict, but the new offensive was already underway even as they were meeting.
“It’s clear there is no understanding between Kagame and Tshisekedi... If they don’t reach an understanding, war will go on,” said Thomas Mutabazi, 67, in the refugee camp.
“Bombs were raining down on us from different directions, some from FARDC (Congolese army) and Burundian soldiers, some from M23 as they returned fire,” he said.
“We had to leave our families and our fields. We don’t know anything, yet the brunt of war is faced by us and our families.”
- ‘Bombs following us’ -
The camp sits on a picturesque hill flanked by tea plantations, well-stocked by NGOs from the United Nations, World Food Programme and others.
There are dormitories and a football pitch for the children, but the mostly women and children at the camp spoke of having their homes and fields stripped bare or destroyed by soldiers.
Jeanette Bendereza, 37, had already fled her home in Kamanyola once this year — during the earlier M23 offensive, escaping to Burundi in February with her four children.
“We came back when they told us peace had returned. We found M23 in charge,” she said.
Then the violence restarted.
“We were used to a few bullets, but within a short time bombs started falling from Burundian fighters. That’s when we started running.”
Burundi has sent troops to help the DRC and finds itself increasingly threatened as the M23 takes towns and villages along its border.
“I ran with neighbors to Kamanyola... We could hear the bombs following us... I don’t know where my husband is now,” Bendereza said, adding she had lost her phone in the chaos.
Olinabangi Kayibanda, 56, had tried to hold out in Kamanyola as the fighting began.
“But when we started seeing people dying and others losing limbs due to bombs... even children were dying, so we decided to flee,” he said.
“I saw a neighbor of mine dead after her house was bombed. She died along with her two children in the house. She was also pregnant.”
“I have 10 kids, but I’m here with only three. I don’t know what happened to the other seven, or their father,” Akilimali Mirindi, 40, told AFP in the Nyarushishi refugee camp in Rwanda’s Rusizi district.
Around 1,000 Congolese have ended up in this camp after renewed fighting broke out in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this month.
The M23 armed group, backed by Rwanda, has seized vast swathes of eastern DRC over the past year and is once again on the march, taking another key city, Uvira, in recent days.
Thousands have fled as civilians are again caught in the crossfire between the M23, Congolese forces and their allies.
Mirindi was living in Kamanyola near the Rwanda border when bombs started falling, destroying her house.
“Many people died, young and old. I saw corpses as we fled, jumping over some of them. I made a decision to cross into Rwanda with the rest,” she said.
Trump hosted the presidents of Rwanda and DRC, Paul Kagame and Felix Tshisekedi, on December 4 for an agreement aimed at ending the conflict, but the new offensive was already underway even as they were meeting.
“It’s clear there is no understanding between Kagame and Tshisekedi... If they don’t reach an understanding, war will go on,” said Thomas Mutabazi, 67, in the refugee camp.
“Bombs were raining down on us from different directions, some from FARDC (Congolese army) and Burundian soldiers, some from M23 as they returned fire,” he said.
“We had to leave our families and our fields. We don’t know anything, yet the brunt of war is faced by us and our families.”
- ‘Bombs following us’ -
The camp sits on a picturesque hill flanked by tea plantations, well-stocked by NGOs from the United Nations, World Food Programme and others.
There are dormitories and a football pitch for the children, but the mostly women and children at the camp spoke of having their homes and fields stripped bare or destroyed by soldiers.
Jeanette Bendereza, 37, had already fled her home in Kamanyola once this year — during the earlier M23 offensive, escaping to Burundi in February with her four children.
“We came back when they told us peace had returned. We found M23 in charge,” she said.
Then the violence restarted.
“We were used to a few bullets, but within a short time bombs started falling from Burundian fighters. That’s when we started running.”
Burundi has sent troops to help the DRC and finds itself increasingly threatened as the M23 takes towns and villages along its border.
“I ran with neighbors to Kamanyola... We could hear the bombs following us... I don’t know where my husband is now,” Bendereza said, adding she had lost her phone in the chaos.
Olinabangi Kayibanda, 56, had tried to hold out in Kamanyola as the fighting began.
“But when we started seeing people dying and others losing limbs due to bombs... even children were dying, so we decided to flee,” he said.
“I saw a neighbor of mine dead after her house was bombed. She died along with her two children in the house. She was also pregnant.”
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