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ASIA WORKING GROUP, BRUSSELS 19 MAY
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1. As you know I attended the EC AWG meeting in Brussels Mr Burns (SAD) will be reporting in detail on
The following points cover issues of, interest
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his return. to SEAD.
A:
1.
Cambodia
There was a consensus agreement that the Troika should meet with Sihanouk in the margins of the meeting with ASEAN Foreign Ministers in Bangkok on 6-9 July, provided that Sihanouk is met in his role as the "Embodiment of Cambodian
dependence" (the Gaellic definition of Sihanouk's position) and not in his role as President of the CGDK.
2. The Germans said that their Ambassador in Hanoi had discussed the EC/ASEAN communiqué with the Vietnamese. latter were "not dissatisfied" with the Duesseldorf text although they yet again rejected the idea of direct talks with Sihanouk, saying only that it would be possible to find "Vietnamese guarantees" for any solution worked out by the Khmer factions.
3. Trial of Pol Pot
The
The Germans said that legal experts had now concluded that the International Convention on Genocide did not contain any provision for the trial of individuals. Their view therefore was that any trial of Pol Pot on charges of genocide would have to be pursued by a Cambodian Court. Obviously this would not be feasible at present. Although theoretically it might be possible to take the Cambodians to the International Court of Justice for not trying Pol Pot, a suit at the ICJ against either Cambodian Government might be construed as recognition. Therefore there is no legal possibility of pursuing this either. There was general agreement for this line and a draft text will be circulated in due course by COREU.
4.
Refugees
I explained the background to our increasing concern about the growing problem of economic migrants from Vietnam, particularly in Hong Kong. I explained that we had made bilateral approaches to the Vietnamese on this and that while we had made some progress, we believed that a co-ordinated international approach was essential if a lasting solution was to be achieved.
5.
For the Germans, Herr Zeller said that this was a weighty proposal with a number of difficulties, not least over the definition of an "economic refugee". The Dutch fully supported our position and suggested that a demarche by the Twelve would be appropriate and the timing
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