LETTERS OF PROTEST

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Head of the Political Parties
And Minister of Justice
And Head of the Law Commission

I am writing to alert you that the Hong Kong government, under heavy pressure from the Republic of China, is studying the About-Picard bill as a prototype for repressive legislation.

According to Hong Kong media reports, not denied by the administration, that government intends to ban targeted minority groups by “follow[ing] the French practice.”

What more severe indictment could be made of the About-Picard bill that its adoption for totalitarian ends? The international human rights community has been unanimous in condemning the Chinese government’s brutal persecution of the Falun Gong and various Christian denominations. According to Amnesty International, at least 77 Falun Gong members have died in custody in China and “tens of thousands... have been arbitrarily detained by police, some of them repeatedly for short periods, and put under pressure to renounce their beliefs. Many of them are reported to have been tortured or ill-treated in detention. Some practitioners have been detained in psychiatric hospitals.” Mr. Alain Vivien of the “Interministerial Mission to Fight Against Sects (MILS)” provided implicit endorsement of these human rights violations by attending a November seminar on “cults” in Beijing hosted by the Chinese government.

Pro-democracy voices in Hong Kong are deeply concerned at the state of affairs on the island. Their criticism of the Hong Kong legislation are those voiced about the About-Picard bill on which it is based. The bill “would give the [Hong Kong] government an excuse to band a religious group based on their own political interest”, according to the director of Hong Kong’s Christian Institute. A Hong Kong democrat, Albert Ho Chun-yan, has stated that it would violate people’s freedom of thought.

The About-Picard bill is based on stereotyped characterizations of minority religions and their members that experts in sociology and religion have long since discredited. Unfortunately, MILS ignores the findings of these experts. They rely instead on extremists with an axe to grind. For example, one individual who recently arranged a meeting for M. Barthelemy of MILS has made Internet postings in defense of an individual just convicted of a hate crime in the United States.

I ask you to consider these points and to reject the About-Picard bill. It would make France a model state for authoritarian regimes known internationally as human rights violators.

Sincerely

Leisa Goodman
Human Rights Director