BBC Monitoring: Falun spokesman in Hong Kong fears Olympics a "license to kill"

07/17/2001

The Falun Gong's main spokesman in Hong Kong says he hopes the International Olympic Committee's decision to hold the 2008 games in Beijing will not be interpreted by the central government's leaders as a license to kill. But Kan Hung-cheung, speaking during a forum at the Foreign Correspondents' Club, also said that as Chinese compatriots, the group's members were pleased that China would have a chance to host the event.

[Kan] "The Falun Gong have no position on whether Beijing should win the bid of the Olympic Games in 2008. As Chinese compatriots, we feel glad that China won the Olympic Games. But we also wish that the Chinese government will keep up its promise to improve the human rights in China after winning the bid, and not see winning the bid of the Olympic Games as a license to kill.

And we are very worried that after winning the bid the Jiang Zemin regime would still persecute and torture Falun Gong practitioners in the future; if they see they have won the bid, they can do it at will. We already warned them not to do that any more."