CONFIDENTIAL
1159A
Ru
1221.
1. Mr
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RECORD OF CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE MINISTER OF STATE AND THE SENIOR
MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF SINGAPORE, HELD AT THE
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE AT 11 AM ON 19 JUNE 1979
Present
Mr P Blaker, MP
Mr Beale, South East Asian
Department
Mr Hamilton, APS/Mr Blaker
HKK
K243/1
J:
Mr Dhanabalan
Mr-Low Choon Ming, Singapore
No 1227 bigh commission
По
Refugees
1. After introductory courtesies, Mr Blaker explained that he had
just returned from discussions in Geneva with the UNHCR. We had been
relieved by the Malaysian Prime Minister's statement, but no-one had
really believed that the Malaysians would shoot refugees rather than
shoo them away.
We intended to take a firm line with Vietnam on
this problem and had already been in touch with the Japanese and
Swedish Governments about their aid programmes. Western Governments
had however been understandably slow to recognise the dimensions of
the problem.
2. Mr Dhanabalan thought that there might still be 2 million more
refugees still to come. He agreed that it was use soft-peddling
with Vietnam and he warned that there was likely to be a famine later
this year in both Vietnam and Cambodia. In Cambodia hostilities had
prevented planting for the next harvest while in Vietnam there had
been a poor spring crop. The Vietnamese would play up the famine in
order to seek international assistance, which would go to their troops rather than the civilian population. The exodus of refugees would
continue, partly on a selected basis, and partly from sheer
desperation. During the Vietnamese war, the North had deliberately
used refugees to destabilise the South and this tactic was now being
repeated.
CONFIDENTIAL
13.
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