Mr Leahy
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 2663/
Delis? INDEX
6 MAR 1979
嘻
No. 51
PA
REGISTRY Action Takın
по
1.19.3 litt
455
Accordgn today pres
The Indonesians
have now.
renewed their Her to make
пиешел
an island amilaku
fu
6/in
CA
A
BC
ISLAND PROCESSING CENTRE FOR VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
1.
Mr John Kimball, First Secretary at the US Embassy, called on me on 27 February to convey his Government's views, and to seek ours, on the proposal to establish an island processing centre in South-East Asia for Vietnamese refugees. He subsequently sent me a copy of his telegram of instruction from the State Department, and two further US telegrams reporting Indonesian statements.
2. Two new points emerge from paragraph 6 of this telegram. The US Government (a) apparently see themselves as carrying a residual commitment eventually to admit for resettlement all "boat refugees" not accepted by third countries (this statement is so unexpected that I have queried it with Mr Kimball: he commented that there was 'no time-frame' to the commitment, which depended on the reactions of Congress); and (b) believe that an alternative means of easing Thailand's concerns might be the "possibility of a consortium of nations to finance the permanent resettlement of refugees from Laos either in Thailand or in other less developed countries, such as Latin America".
3.
The Americans clearly wish to encourage support for the
Their views proposal to establish an island processing centre. will be helpful to us in formulating our own. I told Mr Kimball we would let him know as soon as we had ourselves reached any conclusions on the matter.
4.
Because of communications difficulties, we still await further news from the Embassy in Jakarta of the Indonesian attitude, but there is some useful clarification in the second and third US telegrams. If we have heard nothing from Jakarta by tomorrow, I propose to be in touch again with Lord Goronwy- Roberts' office to see if the Minister of State might be willing to hold the meeting suggested in earlier minutes.
мяо
سلسله
5 March 1979
cc: PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts
PS/Mr Luard
Sir A Parsons
Mr Cortazzi
Mr Murray
Mr Simons, SEAD Mr McLaren, HK&GD Mr Shepherd, MVD
MK O Simpson-Orlebar
United Nations Department
CONFIDENTIAL
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