Dark Clouds Hang Over Mid-Autumn Festival
Supplied by a witness of the forcible camp transfer procedure in the High Island Detention Center, Hong Kong
Moon Festival the people appreciate the moon and eat mooncakes,
But in High Island, we suffer from truncheons and taste kicking
shoes..
September 19, 1994
Long metal huts in a large steel and concrete structure are enclosed by high iron walls topped by waves of coiling barbed wire, constantly patrolled by police officers. This is the 'home' that imprisons some 6,000 Au Lac people who sought freedom in Hong Kong from communist oppression in their homeland. On either side of the camp are clear blue bays and soft rolling mountains, a place of peace and beauty, but a place of suffering for those confined behind the walls. Like a hell amidst heaven, this is the High Island Detention Center.
In the morning of the 19th, Au Lac refugees from the northern section of the Detention Center have already gathered in the courtyard. Unable to see over the mammoth walls, these several hundred refugees were totally unaware of the massive police and military force that awaited them outside. 2 helicopters, 3 naval ships, 11 fire engines, 4 ambulances, rows of prison transport trucks and more than 1,000 police arrived to forcefully remove 21 refugees. 11 men and women atop the roof of the hut, waving a white flag that pleaded S.O.S.
In the afternoon's unyielding sun, riot police pushed through the camp gates entering the courtyard. The refugees sat peacefully. They then silently rose and walked around and encircled the hut in protection of the 11 on the rooftop, who were drained from the intense heat and hunger. The police moved forward surrounding the refugees who began to protest in unison over their unfair treatment. The police kept any outsiders from entering the circle. Soon a message came over the loudspeakers echoing coldly off the metal walls and fading off into the mountains. It ordered them, “Disperse and go to your huts or the police will use their ways with you”. The crowd of refugees stood their ground. The police then stepped in closer formation and further orders came over the speakers, "Disperse or the police will begin the use of pepper tear gas on you”. The refugees still did not move. The police then became to fire rounds of pepper tear gas into both the protesters and the 11 on the roof. This covered the refugees in a cloud of smoke like gas. Thicker blasts of smoke rose over. The refugees huddled together on the roof, crouching below the haze.
As the police pushed and shoved the crowd with their shield and truncheons the cries of women and children pierced the sky. Police crushed groups within the crowd, pressing them into walls and cramming them into corners, hitting those who tried to break free. Some were dragged away by police, others taken away by stretchers to the hospital clinic and another with an injured head.
September 20, 1994
After a sleepless night the refugees from the northern camp came together in peaceful protest walking solemnly under the pouring rain around one of the huts atop of which the same 11 sought safety.
A higher ranking English officer began to beat and kick them. Tear gas was sprayed on people in the crowds, some directly into their mouths. Some were fainting from repeated blows from the officers. Children were grabbed by their necks and thrown aside as they ran to the aid of their battered parents.
Blood and tears began to mix with the storm - soaked ground as truncheons and rain poured down on the refugees. When officers came at the fellow practitioners, some held out the Supreme Master Ching Hai's pendant - as the police saw it they would not hit them. Other fellows carried away those who had fallen or fainted to safety reviving them with juice and ginseng tea.
Under a darkening sky eleven men and women remained in protest on top of the roof of a rounded steel hut. They had been there again all day, famished and weak from their week-long hunger strike, exhausted by the beating sun and drenched by heavy rains. Eleven noose loops tied from one cord wrapped around their necks connecting them in the solidarity of their vow “to die rather than go back to Au Lac”.
These helpless figures stood silhouetted by the setting sun peeking through the rain clouds. Some barely able to stand, clinged on to the ones next to them.
As the police stormed the roof and refugees began slashing their wrist and strangling themselves with the cord, another began jabbing at his belly. About fifty police came at the refugees from different sides knocking them down one by one. In the disturbance, the crowd of police yanked them down from the roof. One woman convulsed intensely, being grabbed by another crowd of police. Others lied frighteningly still with the rope around their necks.
The full moon rose as the end of the long snaking row of police trucks finally left the camp. Soon it's light dimmed, obscured by the dark clouds moving slowly overhead. This was the day of the long celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival.
The children of the north camp wrote a short poem in
remembrance:
Moon Festival
==============
The people appreciate the moon and eat mooncakes,
but in High Island,
we suffer from truncheons
and taste kicking shoes!
During the assault, 148 Au Lacese were injured, 6 remained in isolation under accusations of putting up resistance. Their condition is unknown.
Two days later the first repatriation flight back to Au Lac boarded 33 refugees, some sedated and bound in gray blankets, or weakened needing assistance, others still struggling and yelling. The plane landed in Hanoi. Carried off the plane was one woman shaking and nauseous. The others descended cautiously, not knowing of their fates.
After accomplishing its mission of repatriation, the plane
left Au Lac and crashed into the waters of Hong Kong! When will
the suffering in the world end?