-2-
with the case until the children were discharged. Some magistrates at least know how to draw the line at charging children under this pernicious Ordinance.
Social workers, students and a Catholic missionary who accompanied the boat people to assist them and to keep order, were also arrested charged, found guilty, and put on good behaviour bonds for eighteen months. The boat people themselves were found guilty but were discharged without bond or record. Those fine young people now have a criminal record. The sentence was obviously intended to prevent them taking any further part in helping the poorest of the poor.
▲ further incident occurred on 27th. May, 1979. A private landlord obtained a court order to evict seven squatter families from land which he had bought several years earlier, and where the squatters had been living for ten to twenty years. Agreement on compensation and a removal date had been reached by the two sides, but before this agreement was put into effect, the police arrived with tear gas to smoke the people out of their homes. 24 were arrested and charged with unlawful assembly. Some of them were not involved in the clearance but had run out of their homes for fear of the teargas which filled the homes of some not scheduled for eviction. Some were beaten. The case is pending. Information from the District Office indicates that the landlord is not permitted to use the land he has wreated from the squatters because it is scheduled for Government use. The reason for the clearance requires investigation.
*
grievance
These are only a few examples to show how people with : are silenced by the intimidation of the Ordinance, used selectively.
The passen. Cub
Even worse is the treatment if a political ideology enters-into the protest. In 1979 a small group of young people calling themselves "The Revolutionary Marxist League", which gains little sympathy as yet from the people of Hong Kong because no one is clear about the issues it takes up, protested before a leftist Chinese office against what they called "Lack of democracy in China". Without in any way sympathising with the cause, one wonders why such a small number of persons was dealt with so ruthlessly. They were arrested and charged with unlawful assembly, found guilty and imprisoned. They now complain of their treatment nisan, where they claim to have been isolated and refused permission to read newspapers.
It is clear, therefore, that people are not being charged and imprisoned for lawbreaking, but for the causes for which they stand. The matter well deserves the attention of Amnesty International. To back up this claim of political repression, the following information is relevant, When the boat people were arrested in February, the policeman in charge of the operation was asked why he took such drastic steps, even against small children. He replied that too many people were now taking petitions to the Governor, and the police were under instructions to put a stop to it.
The Public Ordinance is therefore contrary to human rights, and the Hong Kong Government should be reminded of its responsibility under the united Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Of no law should it be said "Any police officer could, IF HE WERE SO MINDED
exercise hia power."
Мей (Кисс
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.