近日, 國際電郵不斷炸香港政府, 指責香港政府和警察成為世貿打手, 要求立即釋放14名政治犯, 並呼籲在事情還未結束前, 不到香港旅遊. 其中一封電郵內容為, 請廣發給香港和國外的朋友, 並呼籲他們繼續向香港政府施壓.
轉自苦勞網
Stop visiting Hong Kong! WTO facilitates state
terrorism
There has been a lot of criticism concerning WTO's role in imposing economic
injustice to the lower class and marginalized people in our society. Apart
from that, the WTO actually facilitates very localized state terrorism
which results in serious human rights violation in the hosting cities,
in this case is Hong Kong. More than 1,000 peaceful protesters had been
arrested and harassed by police. And now the Hong Kong government continues
to persecute 14 activists (11 Koreans, 1 Japanese, 1 Taiwanese and 1 mainland
Chinese) by charging them with unlawful assembly (and probably more offenses
in near future). The Hong Kong police even starts to take revenge on the
local NGOs who support the anti-WTO activists.
So please DO NOT visit Hong Kong until the activists are released. Also
please DO NOT allow your government to host the WTO meeting in your city,
do not invite the Wolf into your home!
In order to prepare for the WTO ministerial meeting, the HK government
has spent a huge amount of money to expand its police force. In August
2005, the Chief Executive Donald issued an executive order to facilitate
phone and internet surveillance by the Hong Kong police by-passing any
public monitor. During (and even after) the WTO meeting, there is a widespread
public surveillance which violates human rights; besides, under covered
polices penetrate into civic groups for attaining information.
Furthermore, the peaceful and restrained demonstration by international
and local protestors, was repressed by the excuse of "Riot"
directed by the police. On Dec. 17, there were less than a hundred demonstrators
involved in the street fight with police, the Hong Kong police force reacted
with excessive force, including batons, pepper spray, tear gas and "sock"
rounds to create an atmosphere of fear and terror and to repress thousands
of peaceful demonstrators.
The arrests of more than 1,000 demonstrators were discriminative (as
the police allowed local protestors to depart) and inhumane; the arrest took more than 10 hours in the street
under cold weather without food. The protestors were treated like criminals
in the police stations, women (including a few Catholic sisters) were
wiped off clothes in front of male police, many of them were forced to
sign statements without translated copy.
14 protestors were charged of illegal assembly and detained in the police
station without bail for one week. The police was abusing the legal procedure
in Hong Kong for political prosecution. Although the 14 protestors were
bailed out in Dec 23, it is a de facto detention as they cannot go back
to their own countries for family reunion and work. The trial could not be fair because the police could not find enough Korean with similar
body size for the identification process.
The Hong Kong police applied the Public Security Ordinance for justifying
their arrest of a thousand protestors and prosecution of 14. The ordinance is inherited from the British colonial
government and has been presented in UN Human Rights Committee for violation
of Human Rights.
Since there is a lot of criticism against the HK police force in handling
the WTO protest (the Bishop Joseph Zen openly
charged that the police action is shameful); a group of retired police
(and friends of police) threatened to launch a demonstration against the
Catholic Church. Meanwhile the police in the frontline started to use
minor charges against local civic groups; on new year eve, December 31,
2005, a team of 20 police arrested a local activist when he was playing
music supporting the 14 anti-WTO protestors in the pedestrian area in
downtown. The event is a regular weekly performance by cultural and media
activists from the Social Movement Resource Center of the Hong Kong Federation
of Student Unions. The arrested activist was charged for "making too much noise and
not handing his ID card to the police".
We can see that because of the WTO ministerial meeting, local authority
has applied "extraordinary" measure against protestors, once
the excessive power being released, it is absolved into the fiber of our
society and directed towards its own citizen in the form of state terrorism.
The venue of the next WTO ministerial meeting has not been determined
yet. I hope that you can raise your voice against any proposal in hosting
such organization which facilitates the expansion of state power against
its own citizens. And please try not to visit Hong Kong until HK government
drop all charges against the 14 international protestors.
I also hope that you can forward this mail to your friends who concerns
about global democracy and liberty, and cc a copy to the following authorities,
to let them know that global citizens are aware of what is happening in
Hong Kong and will take action to support them:
Chief executive of HKSAR Donald Tsang: [email protected]
Secretary for Security, Ambrose S K Lee: [email protected]
Chair person of Hong Kong Tourism Board, Selina Chow: [email protected]
UN Human Rights Committee: [email protected]