Vietnam accused of taking refugees supplies

Press, 29 November 1979, Page 8

Vietnam accused of taking refugees supplies

NZPA-Reuter Panj A group of French Parliamentarians accused the Vietnamese authorities, on its return to Paris from a fourday visit to Kampuchea, of using international aid to control the Kampuchean population. They said at a press con. ference that they believed part of the aid had been sent to Vietnam instead of being distributed to the fam-ine-stricken Khmer people, “Only a trickle of the i international aid arriving in iPhnom Penh reaches the Khmer people,” they said. "There is a deliberate attempt to famish the population on Vietnam's part. The food supplies from Western countries are used as strategic arms to control the population.” The seven deputies, from the U.D.F. political party, the grouping which supports President Valery Giscard

d'Estaing in Parliament, said 'they had visited Phnom .Penh and several villages ,around as well as a refugee . camp on the Thai-Khmer (border. They said they had been :able to communicate in French with many Kampucheans out of sight of their official guides. As proof that part of the international aid was misrouted, they said they had seen a convoy of trucks loaded with Western food supplies heading towards Vietnam, and that one of the drivers had told them in French that his final destination was Vietnam. They said the population was still frightened and had Lttle hope in the future. “Kampuchea is still a conicentration camp.” one depuity, Mr Jean-Pierre Bloch, Isaid. Another member of the 'party, Dr Gilbert Barbier, | said that, according to the (Phnom Penh authorities, ionly 60 doctors and one surgeon were left in KamI puchea.