A
CONFIDENTIAkt
CAMBODIAN REFUGEES AND FAMINE RELIEF
6. On 19 October General Kriangasak announced that civilian refugees would be allowed into Thailand from Cambodia and could stay until it was possible to return. As many as 200,000 may already have been accommodated in new and expanded camps in Thailand. There are an estimated 400,000 potential Cambodian refugees in the border area. UNHCR have agreed to undertake a programme costed at about US$60 m to last until the end of June 1980. Some of the pledges made at the Pledging Conference on 5 November (see paragraph 8 below) will go to this programme.
7.
Conditions inside Cambodia are appalling.
The Vietnamese,
who control the Heng Samrin "government" based in Phnom Penh, delayed the agreement sought by ICRC/UNICEF on conditions to allow a massive and properly supervised relief operation to begin. Agreement now seems to have been reached, overlooking the thorny question of "relief to both sides", and ICRC/UNICEF arrangements are going forward, although subject to various constraints. For the last month, an RAF Hercules making daily relief flights for them into Phnom Penh. being replaced this week by an RAAF Hercules.
has been
It is
8. On 19 October, 1CRC and UNICEF appealed for US$111 m for
The 5 November their relief programme in the first six months. Pledging Conference in New York produced over #120 m (including
British contributions to some for refugees in Thailand). Cambodian relief were announced in early October (see attached sheet). The EEC will be providing food and money worth over 30m units of account (about £20m) for distribution through the relief agencies. Our contribution is between 17% and 18%.
9. On 4 November, after earlier refusals, the Phnom Penh authorities and the Vietnamese announced that they would allow supplies to go up to Phnom Penh itself by the Mekong River route. One Oxfam barge may already have reached Phnom Penh by this route,
Phnom Penh river port has roughly paying heavy pilotage dues.
half the capacity of the deep water port at Kompong Som
about
CONFIDENTIAL
18,000