Mandard
10/4/7
Aranyi Villagers stage sit-ins then go home after warning
YOUNG activists bring food into Central Court through the main gate which was locked by police to oprevent other protestors from entering the court
compound.
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YANYI villagers staged a four-hour sit-in in the Central Court yesterday after five villagers and 13 youths were each put on a $500 good behaviour bond for three years.
The 18 people, including a girl, were ordered to sign the bond by Magistrate Mr P.M. Corfe who found them guilty of unlawful assembly outside the City Hall on September 5.
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The other defendants, 94 women and 14 men, who were residents of the Yanyi Village, were also convicted of the charge.
But Mr Corfe gave them an absolute discharge, after warning them that if they behaved in such a way again. they might expect the law to punish them.
However, the villagers refused to leave the court, and demanded that those who were ordered to sign a bond should also be discharged unconditionally.
The 18 who were bound over also refused to sign the bond at first.
But subsequently 13 youths, most of whom were university students, agreed to do so about two hours after the end of the hearing.
Finally five others, four of whom were residents of the Yanyi Village, also signed the bond.
They will ask the court to review their sentence on Monday, they said.
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This was confirmed Urban Councillor, Mr Peter C.K. Chan, who said he had promised the villagers, appear for them.
Mr Tam Lau, a village representative who was bound over, then spoke to the villagers who had staged a sit-in
in
the No. 2 court of the Central Magistracy, and pursuaded them to leave.
The villagers finally packed and left the court and started their journey back to their village at Lion Rock Hill, in three hired buses.
At one stage the atmosphere was tense at the court when young activists tried to supply the villagers with food and water.
But they were barred from doing so by police officers who guarded the courtroom.
Police explained that the villagers were not kept inside the court and that if they were hungry, they could have left at any time.
The young activists then made use of this chance and told those who came out to bring in food and water.
In his judgment, Mr Corfe pointed out that he believed
the villagers were "misled by
! one or two men among them
S who ought to have known
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better, and by a group of
young men who had nothing to do with their village and their problems."
**One
wonders whose interest they arc serving those of all the people or only those who are willing to behave unlawfully in order to obtain an advantage for themselves at the expense of others," Mr
Corfe said.
"It is a pity that you were so foolish,” he added.
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Mr Corfe warned villagers not to solve. Link grievances by means of illegal assemblies or by shouting and behaving like hooligans.
"There would be а breakdown of law and order and only those who shouted the loudest would get anything," he said.
Yesterday only three of the 126 defendants chose to make their defence in the witness box. The others preferred to keep silent.
Tam Lau, a hawker, also a representative of the villagers, told the court that they did not intend to sit at City Hall for the whole night оп Tuesday.
The women and children were tired after marching to Government House to hand in a petition, so they sat there, waiting for transportation, Tam said.
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He added that some of the villagers had no money to go home.
Tso Chi-on, 2 woman member of the staff of the Caritas Centre, told the court that she was sent to look after the women and children.
She was instructed that wherever the crowd went, she had to follow, she said.
Tsui Wing-cheung, a medical student of the Hongkong University, said he helped to provide food and water for the crowd with other students.
He thought the villagers' action for resettlement was “reasonable”, and they should not be charged with creating unlawful assembly without legal authority or reasonable
excuse.
When Tsui tried to elaborate more on the law, Mr Corfe told him to leave the law to the court, and just tell the facts to the court.
On the prosecution's side, a total of 65 witnesses were called. All were police officers. Police Inspector Yuen Pak-ping prosecuted.