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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
HK B
243 130
GENT
&
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
NOT
ACT
EXTERNAL (for general distribution)
UA
288/89
Ill-Treatment
perch
British Section
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Nobel Peace Prize 1977
UN Human Rights Prize 1978
AI Index: ASA 19/01/89
Distr: UA/SC
3 August 1989
HONG KONG: Ill-treatment of Vietnamese asylum seekers at Sek Kong
Detention Centre
Amnesty International is seriously concerned about reports of an incident on the night of Sunday 23 July 1989 at the Sek Kong Detention Centre for Vietnamese asylum seekers in Hong Kong. According to these reports riot police used batons to indiscriminately beat a large number of asylum seekers, including women. children, elderly Vietnamese and one handicapped person, after a group of up to two hundred asylum seekers reportedly clashed with the police in the camp by hurling stones and debris. A 59- year-old Vietnamese asylum seeker is understood to have died as a result of the ensuing attempt by rict police to quell the unrest, and a post- mortem examination into his death conducted on 25 July 1989 was reported to have found that he had not died from natural causes. At least four other asylum seekers were injured, and required medical treatment in a near-by hospital, while a substantial number of others suffered minor bruises.
Just over a year ago, on 19 July 1988, a similar incident took place at the Hei Ling Chau Detention Centre, when anti-riot police systematically beat up approximately one hundred refugees in the camp who were made to
'run the gauntlet between two lines of anti-riot squad officers.
The Sek Kong Detention Centre was only opened on 20 June 1989 as a temporary camp. It is mace up of makeshift tents on a disused military airfield and at the time of this latest incident accommodated some 7,200 asylum seekers. The incident was reportedly sparked off when police tried to prevent asylum seekers in the camp from receiving relief supplies thrown over the fence of the Sek Kong Detention Centre by refugees from other camps by beating those at the fence with batons; the Vietnamese in turn hurled stones and debris.
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Hong Kong expressed "grave concern" over the incident, and stated that it would submit a detailed report on the events to the government including documentary evidence that police brutality shown in Sek Kong was not an isolated incident. The report has not been made public to date.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Telegrams/telexes/express and airmail letters:
expressing concern at reports of police brutality against Vietnamese asylum seekers in the Sek Kong Detention Centre on 23 and 24 July 1989;
- urging the government to institute an independent inquiry to investigate the incident and to make the findings of the inquiry public;
- requesting that any officers reported to have used unnecessary force. against Vietnamese asylum seekers be suspended from positions of authority in the camps pending further investigation.
Amnesty International is an independent worldwide movement working for the international protection of human rights. It seeks the release of men, women and children detained anywhere because of their beliefs, colour, sex, ethnic origin, language or religious creed, provided they have not used or advocated violence. These are termed prisoners of conscience. It works for fair and prompt trials for all political prisoners and works on behalf of such people detained without charge or trial. It opposes the death penalty and torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of all prisoners.