LEADING war reparations campaigner Tong Zeng said he would defy a Government order to leave Beijing before the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.
'I have the right to stay in Beijing . . . even if the authorities send the police, they have no power to ask me to leave for I break no laws,' Mr Tong said from his Beijing home yesterday, after refusing to comply with the Ministry of Civil Affairs' order to depart the Chinese capital immediately.
Yesterday morning, two officials failed to persuade Mr Tong to leave, but said they would return on Monday.
Mr Tong, who was released from almost 20 hours in police custody on Wednesday for organising a press conference for war victims, was also told not to organise any activities to push the compensation cause.
'I am a delegate to the Non-Governmental Organisation Forum confirmed by the UN and must attend the meeting,' said the activist of his intention to speak about 'comfort women' - the sex slaves for the Japanese Army during the occupation of 1937-45 - at the forum, to be held in tandem with the women's conference.
'It's wrong to label the campaign for war reparations from Japan as troublemaking. We have no intention at all of creating any upheaval. We just want justice for those who died in the war,' Mr Tong said.
