Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, at a media session before the Executive Council meeting this morning (December 3):

Reporter: Mrs Lam, you said you were going to set up an independent review committee to look into the causes … but that's not what people have been asking for almost six months now. It's clear that so many people, at least the 2 million people on the streets, back in June, they wanted to have an independent commission of inquiry to look into the Police's handling of the protests as well as the causes of the unrest. In fact, the international expert panel of the IPCC already said that the IPCC itself lacks the power to conduct a rigorous inquiry into the Police and the protests. You said you wanted to find a way out of the crisis so why not try listening to the people and what's stopping you from doing what so many people have so sincerely wanted you to do over the past six months?
 
Chief Executive: First of all, it has been some time ago that I announced that we would invite a group of community leaders, academia and experts to independently look into the causes of this prolonged social unrest, including the underlying, deep-seated problems that have been bothering Hong Kong. What I said perhaps in more explicit terms last Tuesday was the idea of inviting these people to form themselves into an independent review committee. This independent review committee would look into the causes, which is the first part of your question, of the social unrest and come up with recommendations for the Government, because we don't want to see the recurrence of this social disturbance in future. We have to tackle not only the phenomenon but also the underlying causes. As far as the investigation into the Police, the well-established mechanism is to use the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Council) to look into those allegations and complaints and this time the IPCC has taken the initiative to conduct a thematic fact-finding study into the more significant incidents that have caused a lot of public concern. By now, the IPCC has already worked for five months. I think the best way is for the IPCC to complete its finding, and for society to examine the findings and have a good discussion on the outcome of the IPCC report.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Issued at HKT 13:12

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