Thursday, July 12, 2001

US President George W. Bush has been urged by the Falun Gong to tell Tung Chee-hwa that he should stop making what it claims are defamatory remarks about the spiritual [group]. The appeal came as Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang Yam-kuen answered questions from lawmakers about Mr Tung's remarks.

The group said Mr Tung had put "one country, two systems" in jeopardy and urged the US leader to help Hong Kong continue its rule of law and respect human rights.

On the eve of the Bush-Tung session, scheduled in Washington for early today, the group made public a letter it sent to Mr Bush on Monday expressing its "serious concerns over the deterioration of respect for freedom exhibited by Mr Tung".

The two-page letter accused Mr Tung of attacking Falun Gong by declaring it "no doubt an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted]" without any legal grounds.

"Mr Tung was clearly trying to please his Beijing boss at the expense of Hong Kong's rule of law.

"[He] is putting . . . 'one country, two systems' in jeopardy by verbally attacking the Falun Gong without any legal basis," it said.

Some practitioners have lost their jobs or been discriminated against at work, socially and in their personal lives due to the "defamatory" remarks of Mr Tung and other government officials, it claimed.

The Chief Executive stirred up controversy when he made the comments during a Legco question time session last month.

Speaking in Legco yesterday, Mr Tsang said that whatever the Chief Executive said in the chamber was an official position. Mr Tsang said that under the Basic Law, as head of the Government Mr Tung's views in reply to questions by the legislature represented the position of the Government and were "authoritative". Only when Mr Tung explicitly said he was expressing a personal opinion, would it then cease to be an official statement.

Lee Cheuk-yan, of the Confederation of Trade Unions, accused Mr Tsang of putting words in Mr Tung's mouth by saying everything he said was official.

About 50 practitioners staged a peaceful exercise outside Legco yesterday in protest at Mr Tung's remarks. Group spokesman Kan Hung-cheung said government officials should not toe Mr Tung's line in attacking the [group].

He said he hoped Mr Bush would impress on Mr Tung the importance of abiding by the rule of law and respecting human rights in the SAR.

http://hongkong.scmp.com/ZZZOBQH01PC.html