CONFIDENTIAL
EC/ASEAN FOREIGN MINISTERS' MEETING: BANGKOK
24/25 MARCH
BRIEF NO 3
INDO-CHINA:
HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND REFUGEES
ESSENTIAL FACTS
DSR 11C
Since the beginning of last year, World Food Programme
have been in charge of the UN Border Relief Operation looking
after nearly 300,000 Cambodian refugees, displaced persons
and Thai villagers affected by the fighting in Cambodia.
We contributed £400,000 last July (£300,000 food aid and
£100,000 for the ICRC) and a further £100,000 in December
for ICRC for use by British voluntary agencies, The British
Red Cross medical team at the main refugee camp at
Khao-1-Dang stayed on to handle the extra casualties from
Nong Chan. We are also working on a separate contribution
of medical supplies to the non-communist resistance groups
with £100,000 announced by Lord Belstead in Bangkok in
December. There are also a number of Lao refugees under
UNHCR protection in northern Thailand, and progress has been
made on voluntary repatriations through UNHCR officials
based in Vientiane.
But this has not proved possible for
Cambodian refugees or for the Vietnamese who have reached
Thailand by boat or overland through Cambodia.
/2.