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Rhodesian Refugees
11. The recent Rhodesian raid on a refugee camp in Mozambique did not feature prominently in the discussions. Uganda made a passing refer- ence and Nigeria used some strong language which Ambassador Clark insisted on including in the report. The UK representative mentioned the raid and also referred to the UK Government's' recent decision to contribute £100,000 to Rhodesian refugees in Mozambique.
Kurds
12. The US representative ill-advisedly mentioned Kurdish refugees during his intervention in the General Debate. Some fast footwork by the Secretariat prevented similar references by other delegations. Nevertheless, the US statement brought strong criticism from the Iraqi observer, who claimed that there were no Kurdish refugees and that no mention of Kurds appeared in the documentation before the Executive Committee.
Territorial Asylum
13. Several delegations spoke warmly about the forthcoming pleni- potentiary conference on territorial asylum. But only France and Switzerland announced specific contributions to the cost of the conference France FFS 100,000 and Switzerland SF 75,000. Norway floated the idea that any short-fall in contributions to the running of the conference ought to be met from the High Commissioner's Regular Programme Budget for 1977. This proposal, however, failed to gain support. Several Western delegations, notably the US, Norway and Italy, privately criticised the text of the draft convention on territorial asylum drawn up by the Group of Experts.
They felt that the text as it stood was a "minimum" text which left little room for negotiations during the conference. In the circumstances, they felt that no convention would be preferable to a convention negotiated from the draft text.
Burden Sharing
14. The UK and Denmark once again complained about the failure of some states to contribute more or to contribute at all, to the High Commissioner's regular programme and to special operations. The main financial burden of the High Commissioner's activities was still carried by some 10 or 12 governments. The High Commissioner stressed that he and his staff had been working hard to find new sources of income, notably from the oil producing states. However, these states had to consider many demands on their money. Moreover, these govern- ments tended to prefer bilateral to multilateral assistance. The High Commissioner assured the Committee that he would keep up his pressure, but he hoped that member states of the Executive Committee would also do what they could to encourage non-traditional donors to help. Significantly, the only members of the Executive Committee to announce contributions during the course of the session were traditional Western
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