Hong Kong protesters threaten to call off crisis talks

HONG KONG -- Three main pro-democracy protest groups, who have virtually shut down the city for almost a week in a display of civil disobedience, blamed Hong Kong authorities for an outbreak of brawling and scuffling Friday and threatened to break off talks with the government aimed at defusing the crisis.

The skirmishes erupted in several areas of Hong Kong as people opposed to the continued occupation of key business areas clashed with demonstrators determined to maintain their blockades.

Demonstrators blamed the authorities for the violence, which put into jeopardy talks to ease tension.

"If the government does not immediately prevent the organized attacks on supporters of the Occupy movement, the students will call off dialogue on political reform with the government," said a joint statement by the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Scholarism and Occupy Central with Love and Peace.

After almost a week of peaceful protest and mass civil disobedience, Hong Kong's leader said Thursday night that his deputy would hold talks with student representatives on constitutional reform. Restrictive election proposals issued by the Chinese central government, which took control of Hong Kong in 1997, sparked widespread public opposition, and brought tens of thousands of people into Hong Kong's streets.

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By Friday, a work day after a two-day vacation for China's National Day, some residents clashed with protesters over the continued disruption to their daily lives and businesses. The worst clashes occurred in Mong Kok. At Causeway Bay, on Hong Kong Island, at least 20 mostly older residents protested the continued blockade of normally busy Hennessy Road.

"The protesters are so extreme, they influence the whole of society, I think they've been paid to do this," complained Raymond Nip, 67, who said he was unable to take his grandchildren to school. "We want to keep things as they are now, we don't need to change," Nip said of the Occupy movement's demands for political reform. "Hong Kong is fine now," he said.

While numbers were significantly down on previous days, many students busied themselves maintaining barricades, and manning supply stations. "The protests may shrink to a smaller area, but we will keep roads shut for one to two months," said Edward Lim, 17, in Admiralty, the key protest zone beside the Hong Kong government headquarters. We will never give up and people power will never lose," he said Thursday morning.

"I would like to appeal to members of the public that they should observe the laws of Hong Kong when they are expressing their views," police spokesman Steve Hui said when asked about the confrontation in Mong Kok, a working class area far from the main protest site in downtown Hong Kong, the Admiralty area near the territory's government headquarters.

The protests, led mostly by university students, have been in the streets since last Friday, pushing for the Chinese government to reverse its recent decision requiring a mostly pro-Beijing committee approve candidates for Hong Kong's first election to choose the territory's leader in 2017. The demonstrators want open nominations.

The protests are the biggest challenge to Beijing's authority since China took control of the former British colony in 1997.

Student protesters had threatened to surround or occupy government buildings if the city's chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, did not step down by Thursday, and police had warned of serious consequences if they did that. Late Thursday, Leung held a news conference to offer the talks, but said "I will not resign."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.