Wednesday, 05-Feb-2003

HONG KONG, Feb 5 (AFP) - The Democratic Party accused the Hong Kong administration Wednesday of fixing the results of public consultation on controversial proposed anti-subversion laws.

The party's own submission had been categorised as being neither for nor against the proposed laws, when it was clearly opposed to them, party chairman Yeung Sum said.

Yeung accused the government of "political calculation" to show that those who agreed with the legislation outnumbered those against the laws, which rights groups fear could curtail basic freedoms.

"I think this is unacceptable," he told local radio.

He said a second consultation on the proposed national security legislation, set to go into effect mid-year, was now required.

Meanwhile legislator Cyd Ho filed a complaint with the ombudsman to demand an investigation into how submissions for the national security laws were handled.

She accused the government of failing to account for some 175,000 signatures and other opinions offered during the three-month consultation period.

This "made the community feel cheated by the administration," she said.

Security secretary Regina Ip said last month 97,097 local submissions involving 340,513 signatures had been received during the consultation which ended December 24.

The government announced last month a watering-down of the proposed security laws, which the former British colony has been required to pass since its return to China in 1997.

Changes included an exemption for foreign nationals from prosecution for treason.

The offence of seditious publication was also abolished and the definition of "unauthorised access" to information was narrowed, but the proposal to ban groups outlawed on the mainland on national security grounds was retained.

The proposed laws have sparked widespread concern that basic rights will be curtailed in Hong Kong. Mass protests were staged in December both for and against them.

http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/bt/Qhongkong-subversion.R7Pe_DF5.html