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BRITISH EMBASSY
JI Thamrin 75 Jakarta 10310
Cable Prodrome Jakarta Telex 46166 Telephone 330904
R V Court Esq
SEAD
FCO
Your reference
Our reference
243/1
Date
16 December 1986
Dear Robert
1. I called on Colonel Said, head of the PPPV (which is responsible for handling Indo-Chinese refugees in Indonesia) in order to take soundings on Sir Philip Goodhart's proposals (your letter of 14 November to Wilton, Tokyo).
2. Predictably, the idea of providing permanent resettlement in Indonesia for Indo-Chinese refugees no matter who was prepared to put up the money - was not a particularly palatable one. Indonesian policy from the start has been directed towards ensuring that it is not left with a residual of refugees for whom no country of permanent residence could be found; because financial considerations were largely irrelevant in providing transit facilities on Galang Island (since these had been borne by the UNHCR), the promise of foreign funding was not likely to alter Indonesia's established policy and encourage the provision of permanent resettlement here.
3.
Although the number of refugees on Galang is down to just over 4,000 - the lowest figure since 1979 - Colonel Said told me that Indonesia's concern about the continuing problem has not abated. There is genuine anxiety about the eventual fate of over 1,000 long- stayers (those who have still to be re-settled after more than two years on Galang). Pressure on the West and on Vietnam to resolve the problem will continue, particularly as Indonesia becomes increasingly disaffected with the influx of what are perceived to be "economic" rather than "political" refugees. This hardening of attitudes militates against a change in the policy on permanent resettlement here, as does the more important practical problem of the security implications created
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