A British surgeon who has tended to injured protesters during some of the most violent clashes of the Hong Kong protests warned that Beijing’s imposition of the new national security law on Hong Kong could spark greater discontent, which could lead to more intense demonstrations in the streets and cause more casualties.

Dr. Darren Mann, a combat surgeon who has called Hong Kong home since 1996 — the year before the city was handed over from Britain to China — said he worried that the new national security law tailor-made for the city could criminalize peaceful protests. Hong Kongers may then take more drastic action to defend their freedom and more people may be hurt, he said.

“The rise of public anger to defend the public freedom may cause large-scale protests and violence ... and the violation of international humanitarian norms by the Hong Kong police is not challenged, I am worried generally that there would be much-larger scale of injury and loss of lives of Hong Kong people,” Mann told Apple Daily in an interview.

Mann has been detailing his accounts on the frontline on various international platforms. Last year, he wrote about his experiences as a member of a medical team caring for injured protesters and his observation of the violent confrontation at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in medical journal Lancet. “The actions of the Hong Kong Police Force have fallen far below accepted international norms for the handling of volunteer emergency medical providers,” he wrote.

He said he had seen people suffering from various degrees of injuries caused by police’s use of non-lethal weapons. Some examples included difficulty in breathing after inhaling tear gas and getting burnt by hot canisters. At least two protestors suffered serious injuries from rubber bullets: one sustained internal injuries in the stomach and another blinded, he observed.

But witnessing the arrests of volunteer medical personnels at PolyU was a first for Mann. He said the police had used excessive force against all protesters indiscriminately, even when most of them were peaceful and only a fraction of them were taking violent actions. Apart from firing tear gas canisters and pepper balls, there were also instances where police officers aimed at protesters’ heads when they used rubber bullets, he said.

“The Hong Kong government and Hong Kong police do not have the right to decide its own standard for humanitarian conduct. Those standards are defined already by International humanitarian law or Geneva Convention,” he said. “They broke the humanitarian tradition because they place the priority of operational intent over humanity.”

Mann, currently in the United Kingdom, has also testified at inquiry meetings including those held by Hong Kong Watch, a charity in the UK monitoring the threats to Hong Kong’s basic freedoms as well as the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong. In March, the APPG on Hong Kong launched an investigation into alleged human rights abuse in the city.

Mann said Hong Kongers had lost confidence in the city’s Independent Police Complaints Council particularly after its report last month on police brutality failed to address the core of the issue. Although there are also cases of abuse by the police in the United States — as evidenced by the recent death of African-American George Floyd — at least a system exists in the country to hold those in power accountable, he added.

“Hong Kong people want independent investigation. It is a very reasonable request, but it would never be allowed. If no inquiry happens in Hong Kong, where the matter is related to international humanitarian violations, let the inquiry happen outside Hong Kong,” said Mann.

He called on the United Nations to intervene. The United Nations Human Rights Council has written to the Hong Kong government in February expressing concern over the arrests of volunteer medics. It is understood that the council has sought information from Mann.

When asked if he would be worried about being accused of subverting the state power and separating the country under the new national security law, Mann said if defending humanitarian norms and speaking up for medical personnel would make him a criminal, not only would he be shocked, but the international civil society would also not tolerate it, he said.

“This is a very critical moment because your space is closing, so this is really important. Hong Kong people should make their voices heard,” Mann said.

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