Thousands of anti-globalisation protesters marched through Hong Kong on Sunday under the watchful gaze of police, hours before the end of WTO trade talks, after running battles between police and protestors the previous night.
Organisers estimated more than 7,000 demonstrators joined the afternoon rally, protesting against the impact of World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade rules on the world''s poor. There were no more than 150 remaining members of the militant South Korean contingent blamed by authorities for sparking trouble the night before.
A couple of protesters jumped into Hong Kong harbour and another group set fire to a symbol of the WTO in front of scores of photographers, but there were none of the disturbances seen the previous day.
Police were taking no chances after Saturday''s battles in which they used tear-gas, fire-hoses and pepper spray to hold back more than 1,000 protesters.
After a 14-hour stand-off, about 1,000 officers in riot gear moved in to take away the last of the protesters, many of them elderly men and women. It took about eight hours to clear the scene.
About three hours after the area was cleared and a semblance of normality returned to the downtown district, the last protest march of the weeklong WTO meeting set off from a city park.
The demonstrators, mostly representatives of NGOs from around the region, danced, sang and held a rally denouncing any WTO deal that they say would damage people in developing nations.
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