TNAG-1066-FCO40-1316-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 214

E/CN.4/1503

Annex II page 31

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Measures of social reconstruction included the launching of a campaign to confiscate property of the comprador bour- geoisie (described as bankers, war contractors, ex-imperialists, investors and speculators - elements it was claimed were hostile to the government and responsible for speculation, hoarding and disrupting the market). The old educational system was to be eliminated and schools were issued with books brought in from the north which reflected revolutionary ideals. Intellectual activities involving books, music, films and drama other than from the north were suppressed as part of the attempt to remake southern society and engender in the average Vietnamese a spirit of class struggle, as a first step towards creating the new "socialist man". In fact, it became increasingly apparent that large numbers of southerners, far from embracing the socialist what they saw as the imposition of an alien ethic, interpreted what they saw way of life.

Many grew increasingly bitter and resigned.

95.

to

The massive population relocation programme embarked upon at the same time involving a "return to the village" programme and the settlement of urban dwellers in "New Economic Zones" was part of a plan to solve at one go the urgent problems of urban unemployment and inadequate agricultural production. The population of Saigon, renamed Ho Chi Minh Ville, had leapt from half

three and a half million in a

and few years, at the end of the war, only 35 per cent of the original 85 per cent of the population remained on the land. With 60 per cent of the fifteen thousand villages of the south damaged or de- stroyed, an estimated 25 million acres devastated, an urgent need for manpower was evident if food production were to be assured. Some of the army units in the south helped clear Within about a year, several minefields and rebuild villages. tens of thousands of people had returned to their home villages while 800 000 were reported transferred to New Economic Zones (NEZ). Just over a year later, the number was 1.3 million and the Government's Five Year Plan set relocation targets up to the end of the decade.

96.

of The immense task of resettling such large numbers people within a totally viable framework would however have meant investment on a scale hardly available to the Government. Many of those faced with the choice of starting life in NEZS or latter the leaving the country appear to have thought the better option.

97. Success of a part of the programmes was affected by the

as conflict which,

time went on, Vietnamese-Kampuchean border was reportedly responsible for the displacement inland of 1.2 million people as well as for the arrival of 150 000 Kampuchean refugees needing assistance. Previous inexperience in agricul- ture on the part of the erstwhile urban middle class and harsh conditions militated against the success of the scheme also. Thousands of people deserted the New Economic Zones, either by slipping back into the urban areas or by fleeing the country.