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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the remarks made by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, at a media session at the ground floor lobby of the Central Government Offices, West Wing after the Fight Crime Committee (FCC) meeting this afternoon (June 24):
Secretary for Security: The Fight Crime Committee has reviewed the crime situation of the first five months of this year. The overall crime dropped by 3.5%. As far as violent crime is concerned, it decreased by as much as 3.3%.
Crime that recorded a decrease included miscellaneous thefts, robberies, serious assaults and theft from vehicles. Crime that recorded an increase included shop thefts, homicide and serious drug offences. We have 20 homicide cases in the first five months this year, of which, 17 cases have been detected. All of these cases, we believe, are individual cases involving individual conflict, some mental problem and some emotional problem. There is no evidence at all suggesting that organized crimes are involved.
We have also recorded an increase in serious drug offences. In particular, we have arrested 467 youngsters involved in serious drug offences. This represented a 42% increase when compared with the figure of last year. We are very concerned about youth taking drugs. As you know the Secretary for Justice is leading a steering committee to tackle the problem. We will launch a territory-wide campaign this Saturday (June 28) to mount a publicity campaign, educating youngsters, and their parents, teachers of the seriousness of the drug problem and encourage our youngsters to distance themselves from taking drugs.
Reporter: Can I ask two questions. First of all, can you give us more details about the major programmes of the campaign that will be held on June 28?
Secretary for Security: There will be a ceremony to kick off this campaign against youth drug abuse. We will launch a whole new series of Announcement in the Public Interest (APIs) and new posters. We hope that in the coming campaign, we will involve all walks of life -- business people, school teachers, social workers, even medical doctors -- to unite our force on different fronts: educational, promotional, rehabilitation and enforcement. We hope that this campaign will last for at least a few months to a year. We hope that a message will get across to our youngsters as well as their parents and teachers so that we can work together.
Reporter: The other question is the confusion over remarks by the Immigration Director. He said that he received intelligence that Hong Kong could be under terrorist attack...
Secretary for Security: I must say that it is an honour for Hong Kong SAR to be part of the Olympic family. We are honoured to host the Equestrian Events in Hong Kong. So we must do everything we can to ensure that the event will be held in a safe, smooth and dignified manner. We all know there were incidents, very unhappy incidents in previous Olympic Games -- terrorist attacks, violence and that sort of thing. So we must be vigilant, and I think that is what the Director has meant. As far as terrorist attack is concerned, we maintain a very high level of vigilance and our security agencies have kept on reviewing the situation, exchanging intelligence with other overseas agencies to assess what kind of risks we are exposed to. And the current assessment is that there is no concrete evidence to suggest that an imminent terrorist attack is before us. So, our assessment at this point in time is that the possibility of Hong Kong being under a terrorist attack is still moderate. But of course, we will keep the situation under constant review. If there is any evidence, information and intelligence suggesting that some kind of terrorist attack is coming to Hong Kong, then we may raise the level of vigilance to maybe higher than "moderate". But at this point in time, our assessment is that it is still "moderate".
Reporter: Mr Lee, you said that what Mr Peh had reportedly said was taken out of context. Was the Security Bureau informed by Mr Peh of some intelligence before he made the remarks?
Secretary for Security: All I can confirm is that first, we must be vigilant against any possibility of a terrorist attack. Secondly, we are constantly reviewing the intelligence we have received to arrive at an accurate assessment of the risk we are facing. The latest assessment is that the possibility of being under a terrorist attack is still very "moderate".
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Issued at HKT 21:18
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