SCMP: Macau gets tough for Jiang visit

Round up: Macau security forces drag a young Falun Gong member into a waiting police car as President Jiang Zemin arrived to celebrate the first anniversary of the former Portuguese colony's handover. Picture by Dickson Lee

HARALD BRUNING, STELLA LEE and HEIKE PHILIPPS in Macau

President Jiang Zemin arrived in Macau yesterday to mark the first anniversary of the handover today, as police rounded up and expelled dozens of pro-democracy activists and Falun Gong members.

Expulsions were continuing last night in an effort to prevent disruption of today's ceremonies, while Mr Jiang attended a banquet in his honour. The President will preside over today's ceremony to mark the beginning of the Macau Special Administrative Region a year ago.

Mr Jiang, who together with Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio presided over last year's handover, will go sightseeing during his stay, which lasts until tomorrow afternoon. It is expected to include a walkabout in the old city.

Scuffles broke out yesterday when police took away 30 people, including at least 12 from Hong Kong, several Australian-Chinese, some Macau residents and one Briton. Another group of 20 pro-democracy activists and Falun Gong members were denied entry to Macau and sent back to Hong Kong when they tried to get in by ferry.

Demonstrators from outside Macau were due to be released from custody and expelled last night, a police source said.

Falun Gong members received permission last night to hold meditation sessions today and tomorrow at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park near the border, and far away from where most official events will take place.

April 5th Group activist Leung Kwok-hung said he was given no reason for being refused entry, unlike at last year's handover. "I asked 'What's wrong with me?' but they didn't answer. A uniformed officer told me they were just working for their boss, who instructed them what to do," he said.

Members of the Falun Gong, which is outlawed on the mainland, criticized police for tightening controls on activities this year, with some practitioners complaining they had been arrested before they could wave banners or start meditation. They said police had used excessive force, with sometimes up to three officers deployed to take one follower away.

Scuffles started at about 12.40pm, when five Falun Gong members, including three from Hong Kong, took two taxis to the ferry terminal to greet other followers. One of the taxis, in which three of the five members were travelling, was intercepted by traffic police before it arrived at the terminal. The remaining two followers were dragged away by plain-clothes police as they were being interviewed by journalists.

Another 16 Falun Gong followers were taken away at various points near a garden at the Lisboa Hotel where they had planned to meet for a meditation session and ask Mr Jiang to stop the crackdown on members on the mainland.

A detained practitioner from Macau, Choi Sui-wing, said: "The police have tightened controls this year. We have been followed for two months."

One of the Hong Kong Falun Gong detainees, Wong Yiu-hing, said before his detention: "There is no 'one country, two systems' in Macau. We're only trying to practise here but there are so many plain-clothes police officers around."

A Security Police spokesman said people had been detained because they were suspected of having broken the law on demonstrations. Macau residents can stage protests if they have followed legal procedures but visitors cannot do so. The spokesman said police were not targeting Falun Gong members. "We've no idea what Falun Gong is. We've not classified whether the group is illegal or not," he said. No Macau Falun Gong members had been charged, he said.

The spokesman said the Government could reject travellers' entry to the enclave if police believed they were attempting to commit an offence or had a criminal record in the enclave. A year ago, about 30 Falun Gong members were detained for protesting outside the Lisboa.

Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah said at last night's banquet, attended by about 850 VIPs, that Macau had attained "fairly good" social order and solidarity, overcome some problems and challenges and achieved overall stability and healthy growth since the establishment of the Macau SAR.

Mr Jiang will meet Tung Chee-hwa, who is in Macau for the celebrations, today.

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