Canberra Times: Explain curb on protesters: MLA

By NICK GENTLE

The order preventing protesters outside the Chinese Embassy from exhibiting any banners or making noise in support of the Falun Gong movement set a dangerous precedent and needed to be explained to Australian people, Greens MLA Kerrie Tucker said yesterday.

Ms Tucker was speaking after attending a protest at which police confiscated from her a banner emblazoned with the Falun Gong motto of "truthfulness, forbearance and compassion", while allowing another banner, from Amnesty International, to remain standing.

"I'm not bagging the police here," Ms Tucker said. "They are put in a difficult situation and they have to do their job.

"This is an extraordinary situation and [Foreign Minister] Alexander Downer needs to explain himself to the Australian community.

"Why is he prepared to deny citizens the right to protest on this matter?"

Mr Downer had imposed a 30-day order on March 16, shortly before the arrival of Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, under diplomatic privileges and immunities regulations calling for the removal of banners and "implements used to make amplified noise" at protests conducted by the Falun Gong movement.

Mr Downer's office has said the order was made to protect the security and dignity of staff at the embassy, who had been unsettled by the nine-month long protest.

But Ms Tucker said there had been much rowdier, confrontational, and no doubt unsettling protests outside the South African, Indonesian and French Embassies in the past, and they had not attracted a similar ban.

"Why is it this embassy is so different from every other embassy in Canberra where we have the right to protest about any issue of concern?

"It's a very serious precedent that has been set here," Ms Tucker said, "and Mr Downer needs to be accountable for it."

http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&cat egory=general%20news&story_id=139469&y=2002&m=4

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