E/CN.4/2004/63 page 10 36. Regarding Tenzin Delek Rinpoche and Lobsang Thondup, the Government points out that they were convicted of acts of sedition and enjoyed all the guarantees of a fair trial. 37. In the same letter, the Government enclosed a detailed reply from the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), which pointed out that the 16 members of Falun Gong had not been prosecuted for their religious beliefs but for disturbing the peace and that they had had a fair trial. The Government of the Hong Kong SAR provided a copy of the “anti-subversion” bill, giving a definition of the terms mentioned by the Special Rapporteur and stressing that it was specified in the bill that fundamental rights were to be respected in the implementation of its provisions. 38. The third communication concerns reports that 12 members of an unauthorized church were arrested on 6 June 2003 in the town of Guna, Yunnan, even though they had applied for official permission to hold religious services. 39. The fourth communication concerns the tens of thousands of Ismaeli Muslims in the autonomous Tajik district in the Sinkiang-Uighur region, who are cut off from their fellow believers in Tajikistan and the rest of the world. According to the imam of the Ismaeli mosque in Tashkurgan, children under the age of 18 are unable to go to the mosque and the fourth Aga Khan is prevented from providing assistance to the Ismaeli Muslims in the region. Egypt 40. The first communication is dealt with in paragraphs 36 to 38 of the interim report. 41. In a letter dated 21 July 2003, on the obstacles encountered by members of the Baha’i community trying to obtain identity papers, the Government replied that the law did not permit an identity card (or family or social security card) to be issued to a person who was not a follower of one of the three religions recognized by the Constitution. This is a public policy rule that cannot be circumvented on grounds of freedom of religion or belief as guaranteed by the Constitution. 42. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank the Egyptian Government for its reply. He wishes to point out that the mention of religion on an identity card is a controversial issue and appears to be somewhat at variance with the freedom of religion or belief that is internationally recognized and protected. Moreover, even supposing that it was acceptable to mention religion on an identity card, it could only be claimed that the practice had any legitimacy whatsoever if it was non-discriminatory: to exclude any mention of religions other than Islam, Christianity or Judaism would appear to be a violation of international law. 43. The second communication concerns reports that security forces attacked the Saint-Antoine Coptic monastery in the Red Sea Desert on 19 August 2003 and that, among other things, they blocked access to the monastery and tried to destroy the fence around it.