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a wider war.
Action with the Russians
5.
The Russians should be spoken to firmly; perhaps the European Community could help here. The Vietnamese role in Cambodia had only been possible through the support they had received from the Russians. They could not cross into Thailand unless the Russians supported them (the Russians were subsidising Vietnam daily to the extent of US$24-3 million). The Russians had so far es caped responsibility for their actions, and franker discussion with them was necessary. Brezhnev and Kosygin had told Datuk Hussein that the Vietnamese would not invade Thailand, but the frontier situation contained elements that the Vietnamese considered to be provocative. The refugees included many Pol Pot soldiers who were resting up. Some of the latter had told Holbrooke that they intended to return to Cambodia in order to drive out the Vietnamese. This situation could easily provoke the Vietnamese into action. International Relief Agencies
6. Mr Holbrooke said that some of the refugees had been walking for up to a year in search for food, but that most of those at Sa Keow had been shepherded out of Cambodia by Pol Pot stewards. Although links with Pol Pot might be severed temporarily, the links might be restored. Mr Blaker referred to the relief programmes of the ICRC and UNICEF which the British Government was supporting, and to the efforts of the non-governmental agencies, which, after a slow start, were developing quite well. Mr Cortazzi noted that the concentration had been on getting relief into Cambodia, but that the ICRC and UNICEF might not be doing much in the area controlled by Pol Pot, for fear of upsetting their relations with Heng Samrin, in whose zone there were most people in need. The requirement was to get relief supplies into the frontier area and elsewhere in Thailand where refugees were located.
7. Mr Holbrooke said that he had no wish to criticise the ICRC, who were concerned to help the 80 per cent of the people of Cambodia who lived in the Heng Samrin zone. But in conversation the ICRC obscured the fact that the Vietnamese aim was to ensure that all food went to their own zone in Cambodia and that they wanted to deny food · to Pol Pot as part of their war strategy • The most dangerous area
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Kalong
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