FA 243/1
Mr Murray
CONFILENTIAL
HOUSE OF LORDS PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION: AGAINST VIETNAM
1.
Hkk 243/1
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SECURITY COUNCIL ACTION
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I submit a draft Answer and Answers to Supplementaries, as well as background material in response to the attached Question by Lord Shinwell. The Answer is likely to need up-dating if Dr Waldheim decides before the Question is taken to convene a special conference on Indo-Chinese refugees.
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Lord Shinwell may intend to ask why the Vietnamese Government has not been arraigned before the Security Council since Vietnamese action represents a threat to peace. The answer is that the Russians would veto any resolution critical of Vietnam. Moreover, the discussion would be likely to degenerate into a wrangle between the Russians and Chinese which would make it far less likely that Dr Waldheim would be able to convene the kind of special conference in which we are interested. He would in any case be likely to slow- down his present efforts in favour of a conference until he saw how the Security Council debate concluded.
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However, the Americans appear keen to go to the Security Council before any special conference meets. They and other governments have spoken of "de-linking" the political and humanitarian aspects of the refugee problem. We ourselves might not resist a Security Council debate after the special conference, in case discussion there had to be narrowly concentrated on matters relevant to the UNHCR's mandate.
4.
The Vietnamese Government should be clearly depicted as the evil genius behind the exodus. We have done whatever we can to bring influence to bear on Vietnam to abandon the policies causing its population to flee. We would like to be able to utilize conference discussion to this end; otherwise hundreds of thousands more people will leave and will pose problems of resettlement for the international community for years. of the facts of international life.
28 June 1979
Copies to:
Mr Cortazzi o/r
Mr McLaren HKGD
Mr McCrory
But we must take account
May for
A M Simons
South-East Asian Department
News Dept
CONFIDENTIAL
200/24+1