Hong Kong (AFP)

The pro-democracy protesters are preparing for a mass rally in Hong Kong on Sunday, which they hope will be massive and peaceful, having already marched in large numbers the day before in the streets of the former British colony.

Main event of the weekend, it will be a real test of the determination of the pro-democracy militants as that of the pro-Beijing authorities.

The call to demonstrate on Sunday was launched by the Civil Rights Front, a non-violent organization that sparked the massive June and July demonstrations in which hundreds of thousands of people took part.

"Sunday's march should still bring a million people together, and the Hong Kong people can not be beaten," said pro-democracy MP Claudia Mo on Facebook.

The police gave the green light to this rally in a large park on Hong Kong Island, but banned protesters from marching in the street. This kind of ban has almost always been ignored by protesters in recent weeks, resulting in clashes with law enforcement.

The authorities justify these bans by more and more recurrent violence during the processions, the protesters attacking the police stations. The movement does not bend, despite the arrest of more than 700 people in more than two months of demonstrations.

Born in June of the refusal of a controversial bill authorizing extraditions to China, the mobilization has since broadened its demands to ask for the advent of a real universal suffrage amid fears of growing interference from Beijing .

- "To suppress the voice of the people" -

Saturday's rallies began with a march of thousands of teachers in torrential rain to support the pro-democracy movement, largely led by young activists.

In the afternoon, an even larger crowd gathered to walk to Hung Hom and To Kwa Wan, two popular port neighborhoods for Chinese tourists on the mainland.

Some protesters attacked the premises of the Federation of Trade Unions, a pro-Beijing organization, covering them with graffiti and bombarding them with eggs.

"The government has not yet responded to a single demand and has intensified the police pressure to suppress the voice of the people," said a 25-year-old protester saying his name is March. "If we do not take to the streets, our future, our next generation will face even more repression," he added.

Hard-line pro-democracy activists have been facing police in Mong Kok district in the new territories (north), where multiple clashes have taken place in recent weeks.

They blocked roads and pointed their laser rays at the riot police who carried out some charges, dispersing the demonstrators who briefly gathered.

In the early evening, most militants, claiming that they were reserving their energy for the big pro-democracy rally expected Sunday, separated.

- "Acts not human" -

Thousands of pro-government supporters were also gathered Saturday afternoon in a park to criticize the pro-democracy movement and support the police, a striking illustration of the divisions that are growing in the city. "Their actions are not human, they (the pro-democracy) have all become monsters," lamented Irene Man, a 60-year-old retired supporter of the government. "They are rioters, devoid of reason, without thought".

This pro-government rally dispersed uneventfully before dark.

Both sides were also represented in demonstrations in Paris, with about fifty pro and as many anti-Peking, and in London, where a total of a thousand protesters marched.

The EU has called for a "broad and inclusive dialogue" to "defuse the situation" in Hong Kong, saying it is essential to "show restraint and reject violence".

Ten weeks of protests plunged the international financial center into crisis, with communist-led mainland China adopting an increasingly harsh tone, calling the protesters' most violent actions "quasi-terrorists."

Pro-democracy activists planned two rallies on Saturday and Sunday to show Beijing and the city's unelected leaders that their movement still enjoys broad public support, despite increasingly violent behavior on the part of pro-democracy activists. a minority of radical elements.

On Tuesday, protesters blocked the boarding of passengers at the airport and then assaulted two men whom they accused of being Chinese spies.

These images tarnished a movement that had previously targeted mainly police or government institutions, but sparked an examination of conscience among the protesters.

The Chinese propaganda immediately seized on these violent slippages, the state media hastening to broadcast a flood of articles, images and videos on the subject. They also broadcast footage of Chinese soldiers and armored personnel carriers across the border in Shenzhen.

Washington has warned Beijing that a military intervention would be a "big mistake," while experts say it would be a disaster from an economic point of view and in terms of image for China.

© 2019 AFP