J A Sankey Esq, CMG
United Kingdom Permanent
Representative
UKMis Geneva
15 September 1988
VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE: THE WAY FORWARD
1.
Thank you for your letter of 26 August, suggesting that we might make an early offer of bilateral assistance to Vietnam linked to the return of volunteers from Hong Kong.
2.
sure you can imagine, this is a question which arouses strong political feelings here (and also in Hong Kong). Ministers have long taken the view that the provision of bilateral financial assistance to Vietnam is out of the question so long as Vietnamese troops remain in Cambodia. This position has been explained in forceful terms at all levels from the Prime Minister down. Virtually all other Western governments have adopted the same position.
3. I do not think Ministers would be ready to contemplate departing from that position to the extent of offering bilateral assistance to Vietnam linked to the return of boat people. The most they would be prepared to sanction would be the channelling of modest funds through UNHCR, preferably along with contributions from the Hong Kong Government and other Western governments. And they see even this as the final element in a comprehensive repatriation plan which would make a real impact on the problem of boat people in Hong Kong. It is the most powerful leverage that we have to get the Vietnamese to come across with something more than a token acceptance of a handful of volunteers.
4. Our line with the Vietnamese must therefore continue to be that if Vietnamese citizens in Hong Kong volunteer to return to their own country the question of financial assistance simply does not arise. If however the question of financial assistance to volunteers turns out to be the final obstacle to agreement with the Vietnamese on the return of a substantial number of volunteers we may possibly have to look at the question again. But I
COYACN
CONFIDENTIAL
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