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'hope', a newspaper published for the refugees and run by the
renowned Hong Kong journalists Derek Maitland and Kiran Daniel,
now began a detailed enquiry. At first the editorial rooms were
flooded with anonymous letters from the camps which had to be
smuggled past the camp administration. When 'Hope' announced
that anonymous letters were merely thrown in the waste-paper
basket, the refugees started giving more concrete information.
Among others, Nguyen Van Hung, boat number 3357/1, wrote that
more than 30 children had died since their arrival at the
Chimawan camp in July 1979 because they had been refused medical
aid.
Volunteers from the AMS, the Auxiliary Medical Service, report
hindrances and the Australian nurse, Susan L., in the Kai Tak
East camp reports: "One official from Caritas, the Catholic aid
organisation, recommended that we only treat the critically ill
camp inmates. His argument: these people have more money than
You and I. The first patient brought to Susan was a dead baby
'Hope' also reports another incident. Women from the British
Ex-Servicemen's Association had visited Chimawan. In their moving
report to 'Hope' they described how a lot of the children appeared
to be suffering from severe malnutrition, particularly those who
had been in the camp for some time. The women had brought toys
for the children. Before they left the camp they were requested
by the camp administration to take them away again. When some of
the children refused to part with the toys, uniformed guards
struck and kicked them.
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