‘Unfair to blame Vietnam over refugees’ — N.C.C.

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 19

‘Unfair to blame Vietnam over refugees’ — N.C.C.

Vietnam is not the villian that the Western press is making it out to be. according to a local churchman, the Reverend Brian Turner, who visited Vietnam in May.

The image of a repressive regime, tipping al! its dissidents into the South China Sea in leaky boats for the West to pick up and shelter is an unfair view of the situation, according to Mr Turner. “There seems to be little in the press which appreciates the problems facing Vietnam,” said Mr Turner. “There are two factors; the massive reconstruction after the war which has been aggravated by the border conflict with China and the whole Kampuchean scene which people think is Vietnam s doing.

“The Vietnamese say that four days after the fall of Siagon, they were attacked by Kampuchea — this was well documented — and that this was China’s doing. That is debatable, although China was propping up the Pol Pot regime at the time. Once Kampuchea retreated, the refugees started pouring into Vietnem and the United Nations officials in Hanoi told us that before Vietnam moved into Kampuchea at the beginning of this year 1,500,000 Kampucheans had fled to Vietnam. Vietnam now makes the point that it has accepted more refugees than it has created. “That placed tre-

mendous strain on scarce resources within Vietnam because last year their food crops resulted in only the equivalent of 11

million tonnes of rice — because of floods. Much of the land in the south was made unusable for farming by the napalm bombing, so they haven’t been able to cultivate all the land to give them security against a poor crop.” Mr Turner said another factor which led the Vietnamese to move into Kampuchea was that the Pol Pot regime was exterminating so many people with ethnic Vietnamese ties — part Vietnamese people. “Some say that Vietnam has always had designs on creating a pro-Vietnamese bloc in Indo-China, and critics of Vietnam have also suggested that because of its own harvest difficulties, they had their eye on the Kampuchean rice crop.

“I think the argument is slightly in favour of the Vietnamese point of view; certainly the United Nations officials we talked With seemed to put that argument with a little more force than the reverse.

“The Vietnamese themselves are staggered that they haven’t received the recognition for ousting Pol Pot that Tanzania received for helping oust Idi Amin. They were very surprised at the amount of criticism they received. They put it down to lobbying by China w’hich was behind the Pol Pot regime, and the reluctance of Western powers to aggravate China and miss out on the mass market opening up there.” Mr Turner said there were three reasons whypeople were le'-'-in'' nam. First, the border trouble with Ch.,.a i> .

gravated the position of the 1.4 M Chinese in the country and the ethnic Chinese were feared as a fifth column within Vietnam.

Second, — “and I think this is the most compelling reason" — the change in lifestyle in the south has been quite drastic; from a free-wheeling private enterprise system propped up by S7OOM worth of U.S. aid, predominantly in consumer goods, to a tight socialist

system in which private business is discouraged.

“The reason why so many people are being displaced within Vietnam is because of the food shortages. They have to step up food production rapidly — the new policy is called “Food First,” and this means more people are needed to produce the extra food required.” And third, the general military mobilisation to defend the border with China (“It spreads across six Vietnamese provinces — it’s a long border”) and to assist the new Kampuchean regime. “This means that young Vietnamese are being called up and are leaving to avoid the draft. That’s why the ethnic mix of the refugees who are arriving in Malaysia is switching from being predominantly Chinese to young ethnic Vietnamese. “Another point of contention is whether people are being forced to leave or are leaving of their

own volition. To compare their displacement with the displacement of the Jew’s in Nazi Germany is an overstatement at present.

“When the war finished, it w’as liberation for those in the north, after 36 years of war, and living virtually on two bowls of rice a day. Now they can move out and farm and fish; this is liberation for them. But the change of lifestyle for those in the south is oppressive, and

it’s the pace of the change, the necessity to do it so quickly, that’s causing the problem. “I asked Mr Talbpys whether it was conceivable that the Western powers would provide aid on the scale that was provided for the reconstruction of Germany and other countries after the second world war under the Marshall Plan. My feeling is that if the West would assist Vietnam with its problems, this would get at some of the causes of people becoming refugees.

“The Vietnamese are so nationalistic that they don’t want to be the pawns of anyone or any particular philosophy. .. .

although they’ve adopted state socialism as it enables the inequalities in the country to be levelled out, they’re not strongly Marxist or Maoist, they’re strongly Vietnamese and they want good relationships with the West.

"The country’s lousy with Russians and Eastern

Europe advisers, but I really think they fear becoming too dependent on Russia or the Eastern Communist bloc.”

Mr Turner said that New Zealand aid to Vietnam had dropped away in the last few years, from $764,000 in 1976-77 to $302,000, including a $25,000 emergency grant to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, in 1977-78. and $lOO,OOO in 1978-79.

“There has been no grant to Kampuchea in these three years as far as 1 can discover," he said, “whereas with Malaysia, Thailand, the Philipines and Indonesia we’ve been very generous.

“The real danger with Vietnam is that if we don’t assist them there’s a real possibility that they will become the Cuba of Indo-China and pay a price for Russian support that they don’t really want to pay — be used byRussia as an unsettling force in the area. “Lee Kuan Yew has suggested that it’s really Russian policy to encourage Vietnam to allow a section of ' its population to leave so that the political balance in the area will be disrupted. Ethnic relationships in Malaysia and Singapore are finely poised. If Vietnam allows a large percentage of its ethnic Chinese to go to Malaysia, or Indonesia, this creates not just economic tension but a security risk. “Malaysia already fears that Vietnam may be sending Communist agents with the groups of refugees leaving the country.”

What should New Zea land do then?

“My feeling is that we should tackle the cause bygiving aid to Vietnam, by asking the Government to recognise the new regime in Kampuchea. Until that happens, the United Nations and its resources, including the contributions we make to ■ United Nations agencies, can’t be used in Kampuchea. I agree with the Government; we must devote our attentions to the cause of the problem but at the same time we have a Christian responsibility to assist those who are already displaced. “We’re really in a terrible bind. It’s the old dilemma facing every aid agency and every benevolent government; if you deal too generously with the effect of a problem it may prevent you alleviating the cause. In a sense the refugees are caught in between. If we show ourselves too willing to accommodate the refugees, that will encourage the flow.

“The United Nations officials gave us a clear example when we were in Vietnam in May of how young Vietnamese through their high powered transistors hear through the Voice of America the announcement of new’ U.S.A, resettlement programmes and plan their departure accordingly. This was verified for me in Malaysia. They said that four to five days after the announcement a greater influx of refugees arrived on the coast — it takes three to five days to cross the South China Sea. “One of the crucial questions is whether Viet-

name is really exporting the Chinese, whom they fear as a fifth column and who show a reluctance to become producers rather than consumers — whether they’re tipping them out, or whether they’re leaving of their own free will. The United •Nations officials we spoke to felt that the latter was the case.

“Is it so very much different from the 40,000 New Zealanders who have left New Zealand in the last 12 months? Both groups of people don’t like it in their own country and then people get uptight about the amount of goods and wealth that the Vietnamese w’ho leave have to hand over; but we have restrictions on the amount of money we can take out of the country when we leave. The big difference is that we have a country that will accept us when we leave — Australia. The Vietnamese don’t have guaranteed visas to a host country.”

Mr Turner said he would be surprised if the Government did not increase New Zealand’s quota of refugees from the present 900 limit to two or three thousand. “Some have said we could take 6000. If 40,000 left the country last year there must be a few gaps. Facing up to a tight employment situation after all they’ve been through is not a major hurdle — and another thing, it isn’t a one-way benefit. We’ve lost a lot of skilled people. They will bring skills and adaptability with them. It can only add to a cultural diversity which will help snap us out of our insularity.”

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GENEVIEVE FORDE