Hong Kong chief calls for negotiations

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying answers questions from media during a press conference in Hong Kong Government House. Photo / AP

Move comes as anger grows over police’s heavy-handed treatment of protester

Hong Kong's leader last night said he is ready to start talks as soon as next week with student leaders of the pro-democracy protests that have rocked the city for nearly three weeks.

Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying said officials had been negotiating with the students through middlemen in recent days, and he hoped a meeting to address protesters' demands for democratic reform could be held as soon as next week.

"Over these past few days ... some middlemen were in touch with the Hong Kong Federation of Students, and we expressed our wish that the two sides can meet officially as early as possible," Leung told reporters.

The announcement came after the day started with scuffles between police and the protesters camped out in Hong Kong streets.

Public anger simmered over a video showing police kicking a handcuffed protester on Wednesday night, an incident that happened when police charged the mostly student demonstrators occupying a highway underpass, using pepper spray and dragging dozens away.

Police used pepper spray again yesterday to push back crowds trying to occupy a road outside the Government's headquarters. Police said two protesters were arrested and three officers were injured.

The beating appeared to mark a change in mood for many protesters.

"I used to say at every rally that frontline police officers were just following orders. We shouldn't hurt frontline officers because we were angry ... frontline officers were just doing their jobs," Joshua Wong, the 18-year-old leader of Scholarism, one of three main groups leading the protests, told a rally at the main protest zone in Admiralty.

"But I won't say this again at future rallies. If they're just doing their work, why do they have to beat people?"

Earlier this week, police had removed barriers on the edges of the protest zones in an apparent attempt to chip away at the three main protest zones that have blocked traffic and angered some businesses.

Protesters reacted by building bamboo structures that police dismantled, and later moved into an underpass that police cleared them out of forcibly on Wednesday.

Public anger over the aggressive police tactics on Wednesday night erupted after local TV showed officers taking a protester around a dark corner and kicking him repeatedly on the ground. It is not clear what provoked the attack. Local Now TV showed him splashing water on officers beforehand.

Protester Ken Tsang said he was kicked while he was "detained and defenceless". He added that he was assaulted again in the police station afterwards. Tsang, a member of a pro-democracy political party, lifted his shirt to show reporters injuries to his torso and said he was considering legal action against police.

The demonstrators have taken to the streets since September 26 to oppose the Chinese central Government's decision to screen candidates to run in the territory's first direct elections in 2017. They also want Leung, who was picked by Beijing, to resign. AP