Rice crop only hope for refugees — mayor

Press, 8 January 1980, Page 2

Rice crop only hope for refugees — mayor

PA Hamilton Kampuchean refugees face “wholesale starvation” this year unless a dwindling rice crop is saved immediately, according to the Mayor of Hamilton (Mr R. Jansen), who has returned from visiting several refugee camps in South-East Asia. He predicted another flood of “boat people” escaping from camps to new countries where others would have to deal vith them.

Mr Jansen has spent a month with his family in Singapore and Bangkok, and visited the Sa Kaeo Camp about 32km from the Kampuchean border, as well as two Bangkok camps and a holiday camp in Singapore.

He said the Sa Kaeo camp was a “real eye-opener,” with 32,000 refugees, living together, and preparations

being made for a doubling of that number.

Families of six shared an area 2.4 m by 1.85 m with only a roof over them. “The smell was awful and conditions were grim.” Mr Jansen said that as well as feeling pity for the refugees he felt sorry for the plight of the Thai Government which was doing the best it could to help many refugees, many of whom were still wearing the black uniforms of the Khmer Rouge movement. .“The stories of butchering, torture, and fighting were incredible. They made the Middle Ages torture tales look like a school picnic,” Mr Jansen said. ,

“Figures of those who. died vary, ... but a conservative estimate is two million, and it is going to. be worse this year. The rice crop has not

been harvested because of the fighting, and there will be wholesale starvation if it is not in by March.” Mr Jansen said he believed New Zealand should work with other nations to build a stable Kampuchea as most refugees, given the choice, would rather return to their own country.

New Zealand could take a few more refugees, but there was a limit to how much any nation could do. More medical aid was urgently needed at the camps, which New Zealand could also provide. He said he had changed his mind about bringing orphaned children back to New Zealand.

Many adults had taken children to get safely across the border and the children’s parents were often found later.