Last-ditch plea for refugees

Press, 13 June 1979, Page 8

Last-ditch plea for refugees

NZPA-Reuter Bangkok Refugee officials made a last-minute appeal to Thailand yesterday to call off the planned repatriation of 1000 Kampucheans already offered a new home in the West, diplomatic sources in Bangkok have said. The effort to save the refugees from being pushed back into their war-torr homeland came as the Tha; military moved to complete the repatriation of 40,000 others. The 1000 Kampucheans were being held in a camf housing nearly 6000 refugees in the eastern Thai frontiei town of Aranyaprathet. All were due to be sent back t< Kampuchea today, the sources said. Meanwhile, a high-ranking Government source said 32,700 people had been per suaded to go back to Kam puchea “on a voluntary basis” since last Friday. The source said the evac nation was a strictly military operation conducted foi the security of Thailand am of the refugees, who mighi get caught in fighting alonj the frontier. Ethnic Chinese in the Aranyaprathet camp tolc Reuters last month thej would rather die than bi sent back to Kampuchea. Some of them said ther that they had been taken t< the. Thai border by the Viet namese-led forces of th< new Administration ir Phnom Penh which ouster the Chinese-backed Khmei Rouge Government las January. The operation to send ref ugees back to Kampucher has caused considerable con cern among diplomats ir Bangkok. Diplomatic sources saic that their chief worry wai how the 40,000 people woulr get enough to eat in the for ested hills of Preah Vihear the north-western province of Kampuchea the refugee: were.being sent into. The Thai Prime Ministe (General Kriangsak Chama nand) said yesterday he ha< sent an urgent message t< President Jimmy Carter informing him that the Tha Government had been forcei to make the repatriation be cause Thailand’s capacity fo accepting refugees “ha reached its limits.” Thailani at present shelters abou 200.000 refugees. General Kriangsak alsi said he would send a protes note to the United Nation: Secretary-General (Dr Kur Waldheim) for his allege) failure to take any action ii solving the refugee problem in Thailand.