LETTER I
PAGE I
I am a refugee and I have been in one of Hong Kong's closed camps for more than five years. That is why I could witness the various stages in the treatment the employees of the CSD reserved the refugees. Particularly very recently, when these employees claimed they have given the refugees the best possible treatments. One striking example: Tuen Mun camp, which is a beautiful camp, where exists the best conditions of living for the refugees. One cold day in winter, I had not had a bath for a week, I felt itchy all over, and took the risk and had a bath in the ollowing way: first, my head, then my two hands, feet, private parts of the body, and finally took all my courage to bathe myself entirely. Oh, what a miserable but funny situation! If only you could witness it ! More than 2,000 people live in that camp, and every morning, in the early hours, we are only allowed 10 minutes of hot water, it is fortunate that the refugees never had to fight over some scarce hot water. Another derisory thing : when we had to collect drinking water at dawn; have you ever seen a line of bottles of drinking water of several dozens of meters, it is such a regretful thing that no refugee could take a picture of this.
There is a small clinic at Tuen Mun, we only see one doctor and a few very fierce employees, who must be nurses, these people are extremely . and very easily short-tempered, they scream at and insult the patients or those who come to register for medical treatment. If a delegation of British government officials come to visit, the employees work very conscientiously to show that they care for the refugees. In particular, in October 1987, some of them dressed up AS refugees waiting to be examined by the doctor; they had thrown out of the clinic all refugees. The camp itself was decorated with flowers, in each ward, the dining table was covered with a table cloth, and they waited until the delegation was gone to distribute food, because it was all tough meat, two tiny pieces of beef, or a minuscule chicken wing. One dish at each meal, and this every day of the year.
We are allowed only two meals a day, morning and evening. Meal time is an opportunity for the guards to tease and touch young girls; the excuse is to check whether the refugees are bringing rice in their rooms or not. They only exclude refugees working for the camp or the elderly. Some of my friends have been emprisoned because they protested against that barbarian and repulsive attitude of these employees.
In this, my friends were falsely accused of rebelling against the employees while carrying out their duties. Most of the employees swear, insult and show total contempt of the refugees, they give a particularly hard time to the young girls or women who refuse to lick their boots.
All recreational activities in the camp are limited, for example ; singing and dancing, in groups. For this we repeatedly sent letters of request but they have rarely been answered. Even the football ground is only opened once or twice a week.
In the election of heads of wards to represent the refugees, the CSD employees leave it entirely to the refugees who have no education, are parts of clans to elect themselves. It is also one of the reasons why the official delegations could never know the reality about the conditions of life at Tuen Mun. Moreover no refugee is allowed to meet