TNAG-1066-FCO40-1316-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 201

E/CN.4/1503

Annex II page 18

50. On the same occasion, Somalia's Minister of Local Govern- ment and Rural Development, H.E. Jama Mohamed Ghalib, said in his speech:

"Today, short and long-term assistance is vital, as is the development of an overall strategy aimed at the resolution of the chronic refugee crisis, which so greatly hampers the development of some of the least-developed nations of

Africa.

In this context my Government endorses the recent decision of the General Assembly of the United Nations to table an item entitled "Inter- national Co-operation to avert new flows of refugees" on its agenda.

This step must involve the impartial examination of the root causes of these phenomena. An environment must be created in which these people will return to their homes with a sense of honor and a feeling of security. The international community has a moral responsibility to assist in creating a peaceful atmosphere

atmosphere in which the long-term solution of voluntary repatriation will take place."

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51. The exodus from Viet Nam,

Nam, Laos and Kampuchea is the one which has directly affected the largest number of countries. A wide range of States as far apart

far apart as Australia, Brazil and Kenya have been called upon to grant asylum to people fleeing their own countries by sea although of course the heaviest burden fell on the countries within the region, particularly those neighbouring the Indo-Chinese peninsula. At the same time, responsibility for funding assistance and for providing resettlement has been accepted by over 30 governments.

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52.

For years leading up to April 1975, reports of violations of human rights particularly within the framework of all-out war spoke of the forced displacement of populations, the creation of camps for internally displaced persons, destruction of property and the fragmentation of families. Since then, the flight of large groups of Indo-Chinese, estimated at over one and a half million people, has borne all too eloquent a testimony to the way lives have been disrupted within a period of just over half a decade.

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