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Chinese Troops Join Hong Kong Cleanup as Protesters Retreat

Associated Press

   HONG KONG - Chinese troops came out of the barracks in Hong Kong on
   Saturday -- not to quell protests but to help clean up.

   It was a rare public appearance by the People's Liberation Army on the
   streets of the semiautonomous territory, where the local government's
   inability to end more than five months of often violent protest has
   fueled speculation that Beijing could deploy its troops.

   Running in formation with brooms instead of rifles, they chanted in
   military cadence before joining street cleaners removing debris near
   Hong Kong Baptist University, where police fired tear gas during at
   protesters earlier this week.

   Most anti-government protesters left Hong Kong's universities Saturday
   after occupying them for about a week. Small contingents that remained
   harassed some of those cleaning up and kept a major cross-harbor tunnel
   closed.

   For a city now accustomed to fierce weekend clashes between police and
   protesters, Hong Kong had a relatively quiet Saturday. About 1,000
   people turned out for an annual Gay Pride event in the center of the
   city.

   Dozens of Chinese troops, dressed in black shorts and olive drab
   T-shirts, came out from a nearby barracks to pick up paving stones,
   rocks and other obstacles that had cluttered the street and prevented
   traffic from flowing. Hong Kong riot police kept watch from nearby
   streets.

   China, which maintains a garrison of about 10,000 soldiers in Hong
   Kong, publicly noted several times earlier during the protests that it
   could deploy them, though technically it would have to be requested by
   Hong Kong's government.

   Doing so, however, would incur international criticism and revive
   memories of the army's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at
   Tiananmen Square in 1989.

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