N
}
The whole procedure, said Mr Duncan, was carried out with the
participation and connivance of the Vietnamese Government. The refugees were
told to assemble at a particular spot and were taken under the supervision of
Vietnamese officials to small craft which carried them to the Huey Fong
lying off the coast. The officials supervised the embarkation between 16-18
December 1978. Coded messages were used during the operation, Mr Duncan told
the court. The refugees were referred to as "frozen ducks", the ship as an
"L/C" (a commercial abbreviation of a letter of credit used by exporters) and
the rendezvous with the Huey Fong off the South Vietnamese coast as the
"wedding date".
Several witnesses called by Mr Duncan said they had paid amounts
varying from 24 to 86 taels of gold for themselves and their families to
leave Vietnam. One claimed that a Vietnamese landing craft had taken him
and his family to the Huey Fong; others said that a Vietnamese security
vessel had remained alongside the ship throughout the embarkation.
The principal Crown witness, Kwok Wah-leung, admitted that he took
part in a plot to move the refugees from Vietnam to Hong Kong and received
$US23,500 for arranging the voyage. Kwok, who also sailed on the Huey Fong,
said that when Hong Kong immigration officers boarded the ship, he told them
a refugee and gave a Vietnamese name. Kwok had been granted immunity
from prosecution to give evidence for the Crown.
he was
Kwok alleged that the Vietnamese authorities had used the services of
Kwong Shuck, alias "Uncle Kwong", who had acted as a financial co-ordinator
for Vietcong military activities in Western Vietnam before the "liberation",
to arrange the refugees' passage. Kwok described meetings in a Hong Kong
hotel room and a shipping office in Taipeh during which the Huey Fong
arrangements were made. Messages were received from "Uncle Kwong" calling
for the operation to be speeded up.
Kwok said that money and gold to be paid by the refugees included
substantial "fees" for the Vietnamese authorities and about $HK1.2 million
for the owners of the Huey Fong, while he, "Uncle Kwong", and the accused
were also to get "rewards".