RESTRICTLY
5.
He had et the acting, lermanent Lecretary, Home Affairs, ar sather in Singapore on 29 November who had said that Singapore would definitel attend the Geneva meeting but that ther representation had not yet been decided. de was following up with the Permanent ecretary, FiFA, today i 30 November. At the meeting with fir Nathan, Fir Homan-Herimberg had sai that the UNHCR were of course fully aware of Singapore's policy and Singapore were aware of UNHCR's views; it was not therefore appropriate to go over the ground again. His purpose was to establish whether Singapore would be represented at Geneva. ile had asked to see the FA on this but had been diverted to the Ministry of Home Affairs; it was ironic he was now being pushed back to the FA. Le commented that on present form a joint ASEAN line at the meeting seemed rather doubtful. But UNHCR would not welcome such a common line because they feared it could only be the lowest common denominator ie a Singapore type policy.
6. Following this introduction a number of questions were asked. The American Ambassador said that while the hai situation was recognised as serious,ed that the Geneva meeting should concentrate on the Malaysian situation. Mr lioman-Herimberg agreed but he asked that other participants at the meeting should also bear in mind the Thai sensitivity. The Thais hed, virtually alone among South East Asian countries, accepted the inevitability of an element of permanent resettlement of Indochinese refugees. They would be very unhappy to have their efforts ignored simply because the focus of attention had shifted to Malaysia. The French “mbassador commented that a joint ASEAN approach seemed to him more likely at the meeting. There had been a joint position at the Brussels EnC/ABBA!! meeting and there had subsequently been talks between hree Kuan Yew and Fr Mahathir. Fr Homan-Herimberg thought that the Indonesians had also taken part in some talks but he did not know any details. He would be grateful for any information leads of mission might have (in fact, neither we the Americans mor the Australians hd laurd of any meeting between the Singaporeans and Falaysians or one including the Indonesians but we are checking) The Australian High Commissioner said he assumed that the Malaysian problem was not a financial one but an ethnic and political one. Mr Homan-Herimberg agreed. The UNHCR footed the whole bill for the refugees and in many ways the local economies benefitted because of the large inputs. But r Mahathi had told him that because of the ethnic problems the "alaysians would rather live without such inputs. Froman-llerimberg said that there were now 45,000 Vietnamese refugees in Halaysia of which 15,000 plus 2500 on the Hai llong had arrived in November. The percentage of ethnic Chinese on the Hai Hong was very nearly 100%. The overall percentage of ethnic Chinese among the refugees in Malaysia had been just over 40% in July but was now 60 to 65%. The implication was that virtually all new arrivals were ethnic Chinese. There was no doubt that these people, unlike ethnic Vietnamese vore having their departures eased and that their nayments on departure were formalised and an important part of the local authorities budgets in South Vietnam.
•
7. In answer to a question by the Canadians about Thai or halaysian attitudes towards a bilateral approach to lianoi, hr Homan-lerimberg said that the two governments had differing attitudes. The Phais saw little purpose in a bilateral approach to Hanoi because of their extreme disappointment at the lack of progress in their current talks with the Vietnamese regarding the earlier Vietnamese influx. The Palaysians on the other hand were giving very serious thought to a bilateral approach. The Australian High Commissioner said that there
RESTRICTED
?
/were
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.