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Mr Kitajima then gave me a paper (attached) containing details of an understanding reached at the Japanese Government's Cabinet meeting of 3 April on measures for the resettlement of Indo-Chinese displaced persons. This sets out the Japanese decision to admit for permanent settlement 500 Indo-China refugees, though the conditions are fairly restrictive. paper also sets out some additional measures which the Japanese Government are taking to tackle the refugee problem in the region. Mr Kitajima said he would welcome any comments from us on the paper in due course. I told him that the Japanese Government's contribution to a solution to the problem up until now had seemed somewhat rather one-sided, ie they had been paying plenty of money to the UNHCR and others but had not accepted a reasonable proportion of the resettlement burden as one might have expected. I said the Japanese decision to
He took admit 500 refugees was welcome and a good start. the point.
5. Turning to the proposal to establish an island processing centre, Mr Kitajima said his Government would give financial support for the centre. He asked whether we would do the same and whether our funds would be channelled through UNHCR or go bilaterally to the Indonesians. I said we expected to offer whatever support we could for the establishment of such a centre, but that the Government could not commit themselves to a financial contribution at this stage.
We should need to see some concrete proposals and properly documented costings: any contribution we might make would be channelled through the UNHCR. An important element of our consideration would be whether the processing island would be available for use by not only Asean states but by Hong Kong. The latter was not yet entirely clear.
6. He told me that the Indonesian Foreign Minister had had a meeting with the Japanese and other Ambassadors on 10 April and that the Indonesians intended to convene a conference to discuss the proposal on 15-16 May in Jakarta. They had asked that representation should be at least at Ambassadorial level. Mr Kitajima was not sure of the exact level of Japanese representation at the conference. I told him that, at this stage, we were thinking of asking a member of our Embassy to represent us.
7. He said the UNHCR had already costed the centre proposal at US$ 17 million (covering the cost of construction and of administration during the first year). I said that we had not yet received a report from our own Ambassador in Jakarta of any meeting on 10 April with the Indonesian Foreign Minister. Neither had we received details of the cost of setting up a centre. Mr Kitajima said that New Zealand had offered to help through constructing prefabricated housing on the island. He also said that Galang island (population 200) had been mentioned as the most likely site for the centre. He added that, at the Jakarta conference on 15/16 May, the Indonesians would be expecting specific financial commitments from states represented. Seventeen countries expected
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