Uninvited PLA deployment wasn't interference: govt

PLA soldiers were sent onto the streets of Kowloon Tong on November 16 to clear blocked roads near their barracks. File photo: AFP

The government has sought to assure lawmakers that the deployment of People's Liberation Army soldiers on the streets of Kowloon one Saturday afternoon last month did not breach the Basic Law, even though Article 14 states that the military shall not interfere in local affairs, and the government had not requested the move.



Security Secretary John Lee said that on the day in question, November 16, "many members of the public came out at their own initiative to clear a large number of barricades set up by rioters in various districts".



He said while residents were removing debris from Renfrew Road in Kowloon Tong, "some members of the Hong Kong Garrison joined them".



Despite noting that Article 9 of the Garrison Law also prohibits the PLA from interfering in Hong Kong matters, Lee said the army's deployment was not inconsistent with any regulation in the Basic Law, Garrison Law or any other law.



"The assistance of the Hong Kong Garrison in the clearing of road blocks that day was a voluntary activity initiated by themselves," he said.



Legal sector lawmaker Dennis Kwok had asked whether the government knows which mainland department or official instructed the soldiers to leave their barracks to conduct the clear-up operation.



But Lee said only that the Hong Kong Garrison's management over its members is a defence matter for the PLA. "We do not comment on defence functions which are not the affairs of the HKSAR government," he said.