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On eve of Macau anniversary police bar Falun Gong adherents

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December 20, 2000 

MACAU--(AP) - As Chinese President Jiang Zemin flew in Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of Macau's return to China, police scuffled with Falun Gong practitioners, detaining up to 30 of them and deporting more to keep them off the streets.

Several anti-Beijing demonstrators from Hong Kong were also turned away from the tiny gambling enclave ahead of Wednesday's handover anniversary.

A Falun Gong adherent from Macau said all of those detained were released by late Tuesday night, but critics said the former Portuguese territory had shown a disturbing intolerance of free expression that smacks of suppression in mainland China.

"Our activity in Macau is absolutely peaceful and follows the rule of law in Macau," said Kan Hung-cheung, a Falun Gong spokesman in Hong Kong. "Macau shouldn't prohibit these actions if they are a liberal government, not under the influence of Jiang Zemin."

The Macau government and police said they declined a public assembly permit for Falun Gong because it would have disturbed traffic. The Falun Gong meditation sect is outlawed in mainland China but legal in Hong Kong and Macau, where members planned demonstrations outside the anniversary ceremonies.

Macau police said they had detained "more than 20" Falun Gong followers for planning an "illegal meeting," but Kan put the number of people being held Tuesday night at 26 - including 12 from Hong Kong, six from Australia and three from Macau.

A Macau-based Falun Gong practitioner, Lam Iat-meng, said later that 30 people had been detained but all were released by late in the night. Four Macau residents stayed here, while 26 sect members from elsewhere, including Hong Kong residents, the Australians and apparently one Briton, were sent to Hong Kong, Lam said.

Police were not immediately available for comment on the releases, but they had said earlier that no charges had immediately been filed.

In one incident outside the Lisboa, Macau's biggest casino, journalists looked on as authorities surrounded at least eight Falun Gong participants, dragged them away and shoved them into police vehicles. Earlier, reporters saw three Falun Gong adherents in a taxi stopped and taken away by police.

"Falun Dafa is correct," shouted one follower captured outside the Lisboa, who identified himself as Thomas Dobson, of Darlington, England.

Several wore yellow Falun Gong T-shirts and one had been displaying photographs purportedly showing abuse of Falun Gong in mainland China. Lam said that while the Falun Gong adherents were in custody, they were ordered to take off the yellow shirts.

As Macau's first year under Chinese rule ends, ordinary citizens are pleased gangsters are no longer shooting up the streets of the tiny gambling enclave, as they were before the handover that ended 442 years of governance from Lisbon.

But critics warn that the enclave's freedoms, guaranteed for 50 years, may already be under threat.

At an evening dinner banquet, Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen praised Macau's "vigorous" new government without mentioning the roundup of the Falun Gong figures.

"The public security is getting remarkably better, and the economy has resumed growing," Qian said.

Jiang is a prime target for Falun Gong demonstrations because of his government's intense crackdown on the sect in the mainland.

Kam said at least 30 Falun Gong adherents were deported earlier on Tuesday after arriving by ferry from Hong Kong, 40 miles (64 kilometers) to the east.

An anti-Beijing activist from Hong Kong, Lui Yuk-lin, said she took just three steps onto the ferry pier in Macau before officials detained and deported her.

"I went there as a tourist, but they treated me like a big thief," Lui said. "They said, 'Don't ask any questions, but you can complain later."'

Human rights observers voiced their worries.

"If Macau prohibits any peaceful petitions like mainland China, it will be just another city in mainland China," said the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a Hong Kong monitoring group.

Like former British colony Hong Kong, Macau is supposed to enjoy considerable autonomy and freedom under an arrangement dubbed "one country, two systems," but the human rights center said it was looking more like "one country, one system."

Still, many ordinary Macau citizens are pleased to have returned to China. People here are predominantly Chinese who finally find themselves speaking the same language as officials governing them and they are happy to see an end to the killings by Macau's infamous triad gangs.

"Things are more stable, not so much turbulence," said 84-year-old Tam Yiu-cho. "We're better off under a Chinese government."