XN000022-1996-01-17 — Page 20

(b)

(c)

9

whether, following their decision to close the subway to prevent the group from moving on, the police officers are required under any regulations to openly explain to the group and the people at the scene the legal justifications and reasons for the closure of the subway so as to avoid unnecessary clashes; and

which ordinance empowers the police to cordon off the area outside the Xinhua News Agency, and what are the criteria adopted by the police for determining the boundaries of the area?

Reply:

Mr President,

The answers to the three parts of the question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung are as follows:

(a)

(b)

The Police have a duty under section 10 of the Police Force Ordinance to take lawful measures for preserving order and public peace, and for regulating processions and assemblies in public places. Under section 17 of the Public Order Ordinance, the Police may prevent the holding of, stop, disperse or vary the place or route of any public gathering if he reasonably believes that it is likely to cause or lead to a breach of the peace. In the incident referred to in the question, the small group of students wanted to proceed to the Xinhua News Agency a few minutes before the arrival of a notified procession involving about 200 people. The action taken by the Police was to avoid possible conflict between the two groups to ensure the orderly and peaceful conduct of the two processions. Such action is considered to be necessary and appropriate in the interests of public order and safety.

Contrary to the allegation that the Police refused to reply to all the questions of the students, I must point out that police officers at the scene did advise the students that a larger group of demonstrators would arrive shortly and asked them to allow that group to proceed first so that the demonstrations could be conducted in an orderly way. However, the advice was ignored. Although the legal provisions mentioned in (a) above do not require police officers to openly explain to the people at the scene the legal justifications and reasons, police officers do endeavour to explain to those affected the reasons for exercising these powers when it is practicable to do so to avoid misunderstandings.

Page 20Page 21