AMNESTY International's Hongkong section has delayed the firing of its director, pending a detailed review of the human rights group's local financial situation. The section's four-person executive committee decided in November to dismiss Miss Shim Yan-shan and an office assistant, effective at the end of December, as part of a cost-cutting exercise to stem monthly losses of $20,000. But that decision will be reconsidered after a strong protest from Miss Shim, who is on maternity leave in Singapore. In a letter dated December 26, Miss Shim claimed she was let go because she was pregnant. She also criticised the section for being dominated by expatriates rather than Chinese. But a spokeswoman for Amnesty's international secretariat in London, Ms Anna Stuttard, said the Hongkong section's problems were caused by static membership and income levels. The section received a grant from the international body for a membership drive in an effort to increase its income, she said. Hongkong's problems were no different from those experienced by other sections of Amnesty International, she said. The Hongkong section's cash problems are to be examined during a meeting of Amnesty's international committee, at the end of this month. Meanwhile, a top-level gathering of Amnesty officials will be held in Hongkong from Tuesday. The funding situation will be discussed by Mr Ross Daniels, chairman of the international executive committee, secretary general Mr Pierre Sane and Asia-Pacific Co-ordinator Mr Nikhil Roy. The international executive committee ''may consider waiving some payment due for the office premises, which are rented from the international organisation, as part of a purely financial arrangement'', Ms Stuttard said. But she said Amnesty's structure gave individual sections a large measure of autonomy. ''In the short term, it will be up to the section itself to decide on its future with whatever help from the international secretariat is necessary and available,'' she said.
