TWO Chinese dissidents have been refused entry to Hong Kong to commemorate the June 4 massacre. Scholars Ruan Ming and Liu Binyan said the British Embassy in New York had rejected their visa applications on the recommendation of the Hong Kong Immigration Department. The two were to speak at a seminar next week marking the fifth anniversary of the 1989 crackdown. In a letter to the seminar organiser, Mr Ruan accused the Hong Kong Government of ignoring democracy and human rights. ''Its aim is to ingratiate itself with the Chinese authorities. But its move is setting aside Hong Kong's legal and democratic system,'' said Mr Ruan, a former secretary to the late Chinese communist leader Hu Yaobang and now a university lecturer in the United States. Mr Ruan said embassy staff told him on May 20 they had received a message from the Immigration Department the day before refusing him entry. He visited the embassy three more times to explain his case and promised not to engage in anti-China activities while in Hong Kong. But all attempts failed. He said that the Government's ''intrigues'' were obvious in Mr Liu's case. There was no visible reason to refuse entry to Mr Liu, an academic and former People's Daily reporter. ''He has his green card and effective travelling documents. Anyone who could provide this information could obtain a visa immediately,'' Mr Ruan said. ''The move did not only violate regulations on issuing visas, but it also exploited our right of academic exchange and abuses the human rights ensuring freedom of speech.'' The University of Democracy, a grassroots activist group which organised the seminar, supported Mr Ruan's comments. The Immigration Department had told the group the scholar's applications were being processed. The group wanted to know why the explanations offered by the Immigration Department and the British Embassy in New York were different. The Security Branch declined to comment.
