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Lord Goronwy Roberts, P.C.
International Secretariat
CHKIOO
53 Theobald's Road
London WC1X 8SP Telephone: 01-404 5831 Telegrams: Amnesty London
በ.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State' Foreign and Commonwealth office
S.W. 1.
Dear Minister,
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BJ
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Dinfiddy
sar
2018
Parliamentary
2015
Under-Secretary of State
Recd. 30/8
TO SEAD
fr Drag reply frus
28th August 1974.
and Commny
Robert
as Minister
I regret not to have replied earlier to your letter of 14th KLODE
August concerning the 118 south vietnamese sent back to Saigon from Hongkong. I have however been awaiting the report from Mr. Sanguinetti on his visit to South Vietnam and would like to take this opportunity of thanking Her Majesty's Government for the courtesy extended to Mr. Sanguinetti both in Bangkok and in Saigon.
I am sorry that in your letter you press your request to be informed of the sources of the information which led us to issue our press statement concerning the maltreatment and reported deaths of the deportees after their return to Saigon. I would have hoped that the efforts of the British Government would rather have been concentrated on verifying the accuracy or otherwise of the reports which we had received and in fact in proving us wrong. Amnesty International cannot of course always reveal its sources for reasons which I am sure you will understand.
Unfortunately the report received from Mr. Sanguinetti confirms the information which we had previously conveyed to you regarding ltreatment of some of the deportees upon their return to Saigon and incarceration in the con son prison. Despite promises made by the South Vietnamese Government to Mr. Sanguinetti during conversations, he was unable to visit any of the deportees and of course was unable to attend the trials as none of them has yet started.
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One point in Mr. Sanguinetti's report which I find particularly disturbing is the fact that the British Government does not yet appear to have a list of those who were deported from Hongkong or, if such a list does exist, it has not been transmitted to the Embassy in Saigon. It would seem very difficult for Her Majesty's
representative to make enquiries with regard to the life and treatment of prisoners for whom they have received assurances from the South Vietnamese Government without having the names of those concerned and without therefore being able to check against a list with the South Vietnamese authorities. This is particularly regrettable in so far as at least two of the deportees had already applied to visit Hongkong and had received permission to do so through the Hongkong authorities. The absence of any list appears to confirm
Chairman of the International Executive: Sean Macfride, s.c. Secretary General: MARTIN ENNALS
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PATRONS: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Great Britain Roger Baldwin, President of the International League for the Rights of Man, U.S.A. Danilo Dolci, Sicily Professor Erich Fromm, New York and Mexico Lt.-Gen. Sir Brian Horrocks, Great Britain. Jean-Flavien Lalive, Switzer-
Professor Salvador de Madariaga, Spain Yehudi Menuhin, Great Britain · Professor Gunnar Myrdal, Sweden
Alan Paton, South Dr. Martin Niemöller, Germany Sean MacBride, S.C., Ireland. Professor Giorgio La Pira, Italy Professor Julius Stone, Australia
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HAS CONSULTATIVE STATUS WITH THE UNITED NATIONS (ECOSOC) X UNESCO : THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE : THE ORGANISATION OF AMERICAN STATES AND IS RECOGNISED BY THE ORGANISATION OF AFRICAN UNITY
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