Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Hong Kong Leaders Apologize for Water Cannon Use at Mosque

Associated Press

   HONG KONG - Hong Kong officials apologized to Muslim leaders Monday
   after riot police sprayed a mosque and bystanders with a water cannon
   while trying to contain turbulent pro-democracy demonstrations in the
   semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
   The city's leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and the police chief
   visited the Kowloon Mosque to apologize to the chief imam and Muslim
   community leaders.
   Officials were scrambling to minimize the fallout from the incident at
   one of the city's most well-known religious sites.
   The government said in a statement that Lam "extended an apology for
   the inadvertent spraying." Authorities called it an accident, but a
   bystander's account disputed that.
   Muslim leaders told reporters they accepted the apology.
   "Our mosque is not damaged, nothing is done wrong. Only thing is that
   they should have not done it. For that they apologized so we accept
   it," said Saeed Uddin, honorary secretary of the Islamic Community Fund
   of Hong Kong.
   Police also apologized later at a daily press briefing and said they
   had been contacting Muslim community leaders across the city.
   "To any people or any groups that were affected, we offer our genuine
   apologies," said Cheuk Hau-yip, the Kowloon West regional commander.
   "We certainly do not have any malicious intent."
   It was a rare case of authorities apologizing for how they've handled
   the protest movement, which erupted in early June and expanded to
   include demands for police accountability and political reforms.
   Protesters seized on it as the latest example of what they call
   unnecessarily harsh police tactics
   During Sunday's protest, a police water cannon truck that was passing
   by the mosque sprayed a stinging blue-dyed liquid at a handful of
   people standing in front of the mosque's gate, according to video of
   the incident by pro-democracy lawmaker Jeremy Tam.

.