July 1 March Organisers Expect Huge Turnout

The organiser of the annual July 1 march says it believes anger over the government's failure to withdraw its extradition bill and the policing of recent demonstrations will lead to another huge turnout for this year's rally.

The march, which begins in Victoria Park at 3pm on Monday, will demand an investigation into the policing of a protest on June 12, when tear gas and rubber bullets were fired in Admiralty, and the release without charge of all arrested protesters.

The Civil Human Rights Front’s vice-convenor, Bonnie Leung, said on Saturday that the government had been “arrogant” as it had not responded to any demands raised by anti-extradition protesters.

“And also, the pressure in the society and also in the international community were obviously building up. And lots of young protesters voluntarily did a lot of actions to show that they are still unhappy about what the government had not done,” Leung said.

Meanwhile, the Front says its confident participants in its march will not trigger conflict with a pro-Beijing group that is holding a celebration of the handover on the Victoria Park football pitches.

Since 2017, the Hong Kong Celebrations Association has booked the pitches for the date of the march, meaning the protest starts on a nearby lawn.

Leung says the front will ask protesters to avoid the celebration area.

“We encourage the protesters to enter the central lawn starting point from the Causeway Bay side, that would help a bit,” she said.

“We have confidence that our protesters are very peaceful. And they have shown to the world that they are very peaceful. If there’s any trigger of conflicts, that would not be on our side,” she added.