BEIJING should help and not hinder Hong Kong people pursuing compensation claims against Japan for wartime atrocities, a war reparations activist said.

'The Chinese Government has been blocking people asking for reparations from Japan,' said Association for the Promotion of War Reparations chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan.

He said there had been instances of war reparation activists being arrested by the Chinese authorities. Mr Ho was speaking at the start of a two-month campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Activists will take out newspaper advertisements, circulate petitions and hold exhibitions, seminars and demonstrations. The campaign aims to win compensation and to press the Japanese parliament into expressing remorse for war atrocities.