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COMITÉ INTERNATIONAL DE LA CROIX-ROUGE
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS
COMMUNIQUÉ DE PRESSE
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PRESS RELEASE
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Press release No. 1362
15 June 1979
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REFUGEES IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA : THE ICRC APPEALS TO THE WORLD
Geneva (ICRC) The tragic plight suffered by hundreds of thousands of refugees, victims of the events which have been taking place in South- East Asia for many years, has been worsening for several weeks, and in the last few days has become intolerable.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) solemnly urges the Community of States to become fully aware of the extent of the tragedy in this part of the world and asks them to take immediate and decisive steps towards seeking, at the political level, solutions to the very cause of the disaster.
Humanitarian Organisations such as the Red Cross and the High Commissioner for Refugees can do no more than treat the effects of the crisis and, even then, only to a limited extent.
Today, the efforts of these organisations appear absurdly inadequate in view of the extent of the tragedy; tomorrow, they may no longer even have access to the victims.
Only an overall emergency plan, conceived and supported by the Community of States, might stop the visibly alarming deterioration of the situation. This plan must aim :
to provide food for the civilian populations who are under pressure from fighting or famine to leave their countries of origin or of residence,
to initiate, in those regions of the countries of first asylum where refugees have already arrived, economic development programmes, which would benefit the local population as well as the refugees,
./.