Former Viet Cong among new ‘boat people’

Press, 11 July 1979, Page 18

Former Viet Cong among new ‘boat people’

By

IAN MATHER

in Kuala Lumpur

The presence for the first time of significant numbers of former Viet Cong soldiers among the Vietnamese “boat people” has led informed observers to revise upwards the number of refugees from Vietnam that can be expected. A figure of two million is being mentioned among those preparing for a conference called by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which will take place on July 20. This new wave of refugees, coming on top of the ethnic Chinese who are being driven out by persecution in Vietnam, adds an extra dimension to the problem and makes it even less likely that the conference will come up with a permanent solution. While nine out of 10 of all “boat people” arriving in Hong Kong are ethnic Chinese, the proportion of pure Vietnamese among those reaching Malaysia has gone up from 14 per cent to 40 per cent in recent weeks. Of these, a significant proportion admit they fought as Viet Cong soldiers against the Americans.

The presence of former Viet Cong among middle-class, entrepreneurial and Roman Catholic Vietnamese “boat people” provides > further proof that the Viet Cong have not been given their just reward for their role in the south as guerrilla fighters against the Americans. Immediately after their victory in the south, the North Vietnamese removed all Viet Cong flags in favour of the North Vietnamese flag, and officially excised the Viet Cong from the history books.

In the “museums of American war crimes’’ which I visited in Hanoi and Da Nang, the former United States Marine base in what was South Vietnam, there was no mention of the Viet Cong. The official version of the “liberation” was that the “imperialist aggressors” had been driven out solely by regular North Vietnamese troops fighting in the south. The reason: Hanoi wished to play down the civil war aspect of the struggle against the Americans and disguise the fact that millions of South

Vietnamese had willingly taken sides against Hanoi. Hanoi prefers the more convenient interpretation of history as a straightforward “war of liberation” between the Vietnamese and the American “aggressors.”. While Hanoi is anxious to cultivate unity between the old North and South, it remains distrustful of the South. Every leading official at “re-indoctrination centres” for former South Vietnamese soldiers to whom I spoke in a visit to Vietnam a year ago was from the North. Obsei .ers think that a new wave of disenchanted Viet Cong could pose additional political problems. The Singapore Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, has already stated that Vietnam is trying to dominate South-East Asia by exporting people who could become fifth columns in other countries.

Officials say separate waves of Vietnamese refugees have been detectable since the fail of Saigon. The very rich and those closely identified with the Americans got out at the

time of the collapse in 1975. Later the upper middle-class were able to bribe their way on to boats with the connivance of individual officials. Then, when relations with China deteriorated last autumn, the Vietnamese Government began to put pressure on its Chinese minority of 1,200,000 people. This pressure turned into persecution during and after the war with China earlier this year.

Chinese boat people from Vietnam interviewed in reception camps in Hong Kong told similar stories of harassment by Vietnamese officials. Their jobs were taken away from them, as were their ration cards, which meant they had to buy rice on the black market, or starve.

Some were pestered by officials or taken away to camps. It was made plain to the Chinese that they could leave if they paid for exit visas and places on boats, but they had to find sums totalling as much as $4OOO.

One man of mixed Chinese and Vietnamese origin told me that Vietnamese officials were examining family records up to five

generations back, or around 100 years, and that anyone found to have Chinese blood was declared Chinese.

The pure Vietnamese, including the Viet Cong, have no similar compulsion to leave, but are simply fed up with Communism. The fact that so many can raise large sums to buy their way out is an indication of the large amounts many Vietnamese were able to make from the Americans, and then hide from the Communists.

The only concrete proposal which has emerged so far from the U.N.H.C.R. conference is, a Malaysian request that a “processing” centre should be set up where the Vietnamese would be housed temporarily until places of permanent settlement could be found.

The Malaysian plan was agreed to by the Foreign Ministers of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in Bali last week. Lord Carrington, Britain’s. Foreign Secretary, who had talks with Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Datuk Hussein Onn, on his way home from the Tokyo summit, said Britain would probably favour the

plan provided the interests of Hong Kong were taken into account. Hong Kong, with 58,000 refugees, is bearing the biggest share of the burden in relation to its population. The areas the Malaysians' have in mind as possible transit camps are Guam, a United States island in the Pacific, and the French territory of New Caledonia. Such a plan would be no more than a palliative at the best. It would not provide a permanent place of resettlement for a single refugee,; and so far only the United States, France, Australia and Canada have agreed to take a regular quota. Britain has refused a quota, pleading “social and economic circumstances.’’ Japan recently increased the number it has accepted from six to 10.

Western leaders can see no answer other than a "change of heart” by Vietnam, and they are hoping that international pressure will persuade Vietnam not only to stop persecuting its Chinese, but also to punish corrupt officials and introduce effective controls to assure at least an orderly departure. —O.F.N.S., Copyright.