CODE 18-77
CONFIDENTIAL
Reference
HKK 243/2
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
16 AUG 263
Miss Walker
Walker
(Hong Kong Department WH 312
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
Ꭴ
POSSIBLE RESETTLEMENT OF VIETNAMESE REFUGEES FROM HONG KONG
1.
REGISTRY
Action Taken
ати
David Peate has passed to me your draft letter from Mr Clift to Mr Mellor in Asunción. We shall be most interested in Mr Mellor's reply.
2. I enclose a copy of the entry on Paraguay from the 1982 'Country Reports on Human Rights Practices' produced by the US Department of State for the Committee on Foreign Relations of the US Senate. From this you will see that while Paraguay's record in human rights is not as bad as others in Latin America, it is bad enough to give cause for serious concern. The Senate Report, inter alia, refers to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and some cases of torture.
3.
From the text of your draft to Mr Mellor, I would guess that Section 4 on the economic, social and cultural situation, particularly the paragraph on page 608 which I have side-lined referring to problems of land tilting in the rural sector, will be of interest. I think we should have to look very closely at the detail of any Paraguayan proposal to take Vietnamese refugees as workers in the agricultural secor. Any resettlement of Vietnamese refugees in Paraguay involves a clear risk of criticism of HMG, as suggested in paragraph 3 of your draft.
Simon Pease
27 July 1983
cc: (without enclosure)
M J McLoughlin SAMD
CMJ Segar
SEAD
SRH Pease
United Nations Department
K 154
233 3129
CONFIDENTIAL