HONG KONG University chiefs have threatened to take down the Pillar of Shame after student union leaders put it up on campus without approval early yesterday.
About 400 protesters and members of the university's student union returned to the Pokfulam campus with the giant statue at 4am after the Victoria Park candlelight vigil.
In a rare public attack on its own students, the university's external affairs office issued a statement regretting the unauthorised move and the danger it said the statue posed to pedestrians with the approach of Typhoon Maggie.
'The University expresses regret that on June 4, 1999, the Hong Kong University Students Union had chosen to erect and display the Pillar of Shame statue in . . . a public area on campus, without having applied for and obtained prior approval from the University Council,' the statement said.
'Under the circumstances, the University must completely disclaim responsibility for any events whatsoever consequent upon the act of erecting and displaying the said statue without prior permission.
'The University deeply regrets the HKUSU's apparent disregard of public safety . . . [and] reserves the right to take appropriate action to remove the statue.' The authorities have fenced off the area.
