Taiwanese protesters barred from entering SAR

Stephen E Philion philion at hawaii.edu
Sat Oct 27 21:16:58 PDT 2001


Saturday, October 27, 2001 Taiwanese protesters barred from entering SAR

http://hongkong.scmp.com/ZZZPOLWX2TC.html

ASSOCIATED PRESS Updated at 4.13pm, Saturday:

Five Taiwanese have been barred from entering Hong Kong to join anti-globalisation protests against an economic meeting next week, a demonstration organiser said on Saturday.

Three men and two women from Taipei were detained at Chek Lap Kok airport on Friday night and refused entry by immigration officials for ''security reasons,'' said Lam Chi-leung, a spokesman for the Solidarity and Resistance to Globalisation alliance.

One was forced onto a return plane for Taipei on Saturday morning, while other four, still detained in the Hong Kong airport, were expected to leave for Taiwan by Sunday, Mr Leung said.

The five, all in their 20s, were among the 20 people invited from Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, and New Zealand to give talks during anti-globalisation forums on Saturday and Monday in protest against a World Economic Forum meeting to be held next week, Mr Leung said.

He said four of the detained Taiwanese were union officials and one was an environmentalist, and at least four of them have entered the territory before. Three other Taiwanese in the same group, however, were allowed entry on Friday, he said.

Mr Leung called the alleged detention as ''intentional crackdown against the group''.

''Their action is unreasonable and shameful,'' Mr Leung said, ''Our Taiwanese friends are not terrorists and most of them have come to Hong Kong before and had exchanges with non-governmental organisations.''

The Immigration Department said in a statement that entry of foreigners are ''processed in accordance with existing immigration requirements and procedures.'' It said it would not comment on individual cases.

Mr Leung said his group plans a peaceful march involving about 500 people Sunday, a day before the three-day forum opens.

Activists haven't announced any plans to repeat the massive, and sometimes violent, demonstrations that have disrupted other global financial conferences.

The World Economic Forum organisers have said the summit is expected to run without trouble from anti-globalisation protesters.

The Government plans to have 500 police patrolling around the conference area, far fewer than the 3,000 officers on alert when Chinese President Jiang Zemin and former US President Bill Clinton attended the Fortune Global Forum here in May.

The spiritual group Falun Gong, outlawed in mainland China but legal here, had complained that 100 of its followers from overseas were blacklisted and refused entry into Hong Kong during that conference.

Security officials said that nobody had been refused entry on the basis of religious beliefs.

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