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PEOPLE OF HONG KONG ABANDONED BY BRITAIN: REPORT SAYS COLONY
By Margaret McDonald of AAP
SYDNEY, April 28 AAP - Six million people in the 18th largest commercia. nation in the world were to be handed over from one colonial power to another without any say at all, former News South Wales John Dowd said today.
attorney-general
"It is one of the greatest betrayals of democratic principles and the right of self determination this century, M Mr Dowd said referring to Britain's handover of Hong Kong to China im 1997.
Mr Dowd, QC, and three other commissioners from the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) wrote a report entitled
'Countdown To 1997' which was released simultaneously in Sydney, London and Hong Kong today. MORE
COLONY 2 SYDNEY
He said the report was designed to embarrass the British Government and to stimulate debate within Hong Kong.
"The joint declaration (1984) made between Britain and the People's Republic of China was negotiated im secret and with no consultation with the pople of Hong Kong," My Dowd said.
"One colonial master has handed six million people over to one of the world's most repressive regimes.
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Britain, which talks of democracy and rights of people, just abandoned these people without even consulting them."
The 1984 joint declaration was ratified in May 1987.
In 1990 China released its 'Basic Law', which will be Hong Kong's constitution after 1997.
"unsatisfactory
The ICJ said Britain should have objected to several provisions" in the Basic Law, which signalled China was evading its obligations it originally accepted under the 1984 declaration.
One major concern was the judiciary, the ICJ report said.
"For example, the Chinese National People's Congress mat the courts of
have been given power to interpret the Basic Law and to decide
whether existing laws of Hong Kong contravene it, H it said.
If an independent judiciary is not maintained, the protection of Humanı rights is in jeopardy.
Mr Dowd said China did not have a particuarly good track record in human rights following the suppression and massacre of pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.
"The British Government has to make sure China amends the Basic Law for Hong Kong, which doesn't give them the rights that the Chinese agreed to," he said.
When the British started negotiating with China, there was no democratic movement within Hong Kong "because like most colonial peoples, think in terms of their rights"
they didn't
My Dowd said.
China will provide a system of legislative councillors to rule Hong Kong, but Hong Kong' people can't elect these councillors, who will answer to Beijing.
Since Tiananmeny Mr Dowd said student organisations in Hong Kong had become "strong and active" and would continue to grow over the next five years.
"When I was in Hong Kong last June to research this report, there was resolution passed banning the death penalty in Hong Kong so people there
starting to prepare for what it could mean ha talen över by the
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He said Hong Kong people he spoke to accepted China's sovereignty but also were beginning to realise they had a right to self-determination.
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