Keeping order: Chief Superintendent Alfred Ma says Police will have zero tolerance for demonstrators causing trouble during the WTO's 6th Ministerial Conference.

An unprecedented Hong Kong Police presence will be on hand to ensure the WTO's 6th Ministerial Conference runs smoothly December 13 to 18.

While Police respect protesters' right to air their views, arrangements have been made to ensure they do so in an orderly and peaceful manner, avoiding disruption to Hong Kong citizens and the conference.

To implement the measures, officers will be deployed from across the force to secure the conference, and facilitate demonstrations, processions, and ensure traffic and general business in Hong Kong continues with minimum disruption during the period.

Unprecedented challenge

Chief Superintendent of Police Public Relations Alfred Ma said an unprecedented Police deployment will be made to ensure a smooth and successful event. Although Police have not finalised an exact figure yet, he said manpower will easily exceed the deployment seen during the 1997 Handover, which was overseen by Mainland and British leaders, and even British royalty.

"We have a manpower plan, and will have adequate resources to carry out all the tasks required, which are a lot more than the Handover operation. This one is far more complicated than the Handover. The ministerial conference involves so many people coming from all over the world. There will be 6,000 delegates, 2,000 non-government organisations and 3,000 journalists, along with other groups who are planning to demonstrate," Mr Ma said.

"It is an unprecedented challenge presented to the Police, and unprecedented in the manpower deployed and the things we need to address. We want to see the conference successfully held."

Getting prepared

To ensure a smooth event, Mr Ma said the force has been learning from the experience of jurisdictions that have already held the conference.

"Our preparations started more than 12 months ago. We have formed nine working groups responsible for different aspects of the conference. They look at each area, and what is required. We draw manpower from all over the force for each working group. This is not just an issue for Hong Kong Island, this operation will be force-wide."

The working groups are:

* logistics;

* traffic management;

* manpower and procurement;

* public relations;

* command and control;

* IT and communications;

* public order;

* security; and,

* tactics and training.

"We have been sending our officers overseas to learn from the problems encountered by our overseas counterparts as well as their good practices. We have learned a lot and are keeping close liaison with them," he added.

"We need to strike a balance. We must not only take care of the security arrangements for the conference proper, we will have to consider facilitating those who wish to express their views. We want to see as little disruption to daily life as possible."

Handling demonstrators

Demonstrations are common during ministerial meetings, and processions are expected in Hong Kong. Although some violence has been experienced in the past, Police believe most of those expected to protest at the Hong Kong round will be law abiding.

"As long as they express their views lawfully, we will do our best to facilitate them. We are now discussing with those groups routes for procession and areas where they can hold demonstrations. I understand the majority of the demonstrators will do so peacefully. There may only be a few radical elements we will be concerned about, and we very much hope their demonstrations will be conducted in a peaceful manner."

Mr Ma warned Police will have zero tolerance for those who blatantly break the law and pose a threat to public order.

"They can expect nothing less than resolute action from Police if they resort to violence. If they cause damage to property, threaten the lives of others, or try to do things aimed to derail the meeting, then we will take immediate and robust action.

"We in Hong Kong have enjoyed stability for a long time and we want to keep it that way. People who wish to come here to express themselves must respect the laws of Hong Kong and understand Police are here to facilitate lawful and peaceful demonstrations. We ask them to respect the rights of common Hong Kong folk."

Keeping HK running

Despite the unprecedented Police presence at MC6, Mr Ma said general police work in other areas of Hong Kong will be unaffected.

"We will ensure an obvious and sufficient Police presence. We have introduced special measures for the conference period such as restricting leave, deploying more indoor officers outside, and making use of Auxiliary Police as well as officers in Police Headquarters to beef up frontline coverage. Everyone will get involved. We will ensure sufficient officers on the street."

Mr Ma said some inconveniences will be inevitable during the conference period, and called on the public to be calm and co-operative.

"We ask the public to show understanding and tolerance. There are bound to be inconveniences due to special traffic arrangements. Locations for designated demonstration areas are still being negotiated. Discussions are making very good progress. We cannot finalise road diversions yet. We need to plan it when we have more details. They will become clear closer to the time. We will give advanced notice to the public advising them on what will happen."