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Your reference
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HKK 243/8
SEAD
Our reference
UN 243/518/1
FCO
2 1 JUL 1986
Date
30 June 1986
Taken
14/7
Dear Stephen,
UNHCR OPEN HOUSE: 5 JUNE 1986; HLWG MEETING WITH MR HOCKE: 11 JUNE; UNHCR INFORMAL EXCOM MEETING: 13 JUNE (UNHCR PROGRAMMES IN THAILAND, EXCLUDING ANTI-PIRACY PROGRAMME)
1.
At the UNHCR Open House meeting on 5 June, UNHCR officials from the Asia and Oceania Bureau informed us that UNHCR were continuing negotiations with the Thai Government and, interested resettlement countries in solving the problem of the" Kampuchean" refugees in Thailand: the next meeting was scheduled for 13 June in Bangkok. Laotian refugees in Thailand were a different category: so far only 2,898 refugees had returned to Laos since the voluntary repatriation programme started in 1980. As far as the screening procedure was concerned, for the period July 1985 to 15 May 1986 4,164 persons arrived of whom 2,053 were "screened in" and 1,060 "screened out" with just over 1,000 cases pending. The problem with the persons "screend out" was that no-one had been able to return: negotiations were still continuing.
2.
The subject of refugees in Thailand was next brought up during the informal EXCOM meeting on 13 June. Thailand spoke, to welcome the High Commissioner's proposed trip to South-East Asia during the summer and to refer to the problem of the Indo-Chinese "long-stayers" awaiting resettlement. Thailand stressed that the two "durable solutions applicable in this case were voluntary repatriation and resettlement. The Thai government had promoted voluntary repatriation movements with UNHCR, including the new screening programme, but unfortunately the Laotian government was reluctant to accept the 1,400 persons (the Thai figure) "screened out" who were waiting in Thailand for repatriation.
Thai/Cambodian border incident
3.
Thailand raised in their opening statement the Thai/Cambodian border incident on 29 May 1986 when Vietnamese forces occupying "Kampuchea" fired 15 rounds of artillery shells into the middle of the
UNBRO-supervised "Site 8" camp, 4 km inside Thailand. Eleven displaced persons had been killed and forty-seven seriously wounded. Thailand considered this to be premeditated action by Vietnam, in breach of Thailand's sovereign and territorial integrity and a threat to innocent citizens. Thailand appealed for international pressure to be exerted on Hanoi.
This issue was not specifically mentioned by any other speaker except China who described the incident as a fresh crime against
4.
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* Please see PS
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