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Governor: Sorry, is the honourable member suggesting that there should be a schedule of repayments agreed by the UNHCR?
Mr Yum Sin-ling: Yes, some sort of a contract with the repayments scheduled.
Governor: We would obviously like the repayment made as rapidly as possible, and we could then use that money on some other purpose. The commitment to the UNHCR was made in good faith and we expected to get the money back quickly. We still expect to get the money back and the UNHCR still says it is going to give us the money back. I'm sure we would be prepared to consider arrangements with the UNHCR which would enable the UNHCR, which is of course dependent on the contributions made by member states, to collect larger contributions from them. If there are particular proposals, then I am sure we would be prepared to look at them.
I would just add this. I, too, met the UNHCR representative when he was in Hong Kong. I think he is totally committed to helping us resolve the problem posed by the Vietnamese migrants, and I think that all of us should recognise the role that he and other members of the UNHCR have played in the last few years in dealing with this very difficult problem. Shortly before I arrived in Hong Kong the number of Vietnamese migrants in our camps had peaked at over 60,000. We had got that down to about 21,000 when we first ran into some difficulties last year; we were just starting to cope with those difficulties when, as the honourable member knows, the United States Congress intervened unhelpfully. But I hope we can get back to the earlier period in 1992 and 1993 when we were enjoying such a rapid rate of voluntary repatriation.
THI
he was Mr Cheng Kar-foo (in Chinese): Thank you Mr President. Mr Tsang talking about interference with the judiciary, but I think he should have said interfering with the independence of the judiciary. But I would like to follow up by asking another question that is more direct.
Mr Governor, you gave us quite a bit of officialese saying that there should be separation of power between the judiciary and the legislature. But recently, two members of the Judiciary made some comments on the BOR Ordinance. Now, Mr Governor, you lead the Government and you said - tapping on the table with a lot of vigour - saying that we should continue to protect human rights in Hong Kong. And yet, here we do have members of the Judiciary, at certain functions, criticising the Bill of Rights Ordinance. Now, if this is what actually happened, then people in Hong Kong would be quite disturbed, so, Mr Governor, what can you do to assure us that the Administration under your leadership, and the Judiciary under your leadership, will really have a consensus on this issue? And then you are really working to protect the human rights here in Hong Kong.