Joshua Wong 黃之鋒  😷Verified account

2/ Shame on Switzerland for turning a blind eye to escalating police brutality. The sales of these weapons to the HKGov, which has evidently lost all of its credibility for how it handled protests, is at odds with the Swiss image as a peace-broker and a promoter of human rights.

3/ In the past, HKPolice have shown little concern about restrictive use of force; they have intentionally aimed for the heads at close range while showing no sympathy even for children. Not to mention other human rights violations such as detaining first-aiders & journalists.

4/ Manufactured by Piexon, a Swiss company produced pepper-based weapons, JPX4 pistol fires pellets of pressurised irritants with high ejection velocity that cause temporary blindness, extreme pain to the nose, throat, and lungs.

5/ Although Piexon claims that the pepper-pistol is ‘safer than a Taser’, this equipment is no less lethal. Daniel Graf, the spokesperson of Amnesty International Switzerland, has pointed out that both of the weapons are equally dangerous.

6/ Regrettably, the Swiss Gov’s vetting of export permits based on human rights abuses has proven to be insufficient. In 2014, the Swiss parliament lifted arms export restrictions, allowing arms export to countries which ‘violate human rights in a systematic manner.’

7/ Swiss-made weapons have found their way to autocratic regimes, where they deployed to suppress protests & insurgencies. In 2014, Swiss-made sniper rifles were used to gun down civilians in Kiev’s Maidan square during the Ukrainian Revolution.

8/ While Saudi Arabian military used Swiss-made APCs to crack down on Bahrain protests......With Beijing tightening its grip on HK amidst the Covid-19 crisis, who can guarantee that we won’t be seeing Swiss assault rifles next, found in the hands of HKPolice hunting down HKers?