TNAG-1803-FCO40-2563-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-talks-between-the-UK--Hong-Kon-1988 — Page 5

assistance might be at two levels: small scale assistance to individuals (clothing and personal requirements, to be provided by voluntary agencies) and project assistance to communities, i.e. assistance specifically aimed at helping the re-establishment within the local community of individuals who have left Vietnam;

project assistance would take the form of aid in kind directed at the specific economic and social requirements of the returnees and their immediate communities;

the management and disbursement of funds would be under the control of the UNHCR;

initial contributions to the fund would need to come from the UK and Hong Kong. It is unlikely that many other countries would be prepared to contribute in advance of a more general multilateral solution related to broader issues such as, e.g. a Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia.

Multi-Lateral Initiatives

16

It will be important to ensure that in our bilateral contacts with the Vietnamese we stay in step with the emerging multi-lateral initiative from the ASEAN countries. It now seems quite possible that there will be an international conference in April of 1989 on Indonesian refugees attended by the countries of first asylum, the resettlement countries, the donor countries and the countries of origin (Vietnam and Laos). If a general solution were to emerge from such a conference it would be bound to include repatriation and reintegration assistance. Whatever we set out to achieve in bilateral negotiations with Vietnam (which the urgency of our problems requires us to continue) must be in line with what we think will be acceptable to the

the many countries involved in the multi-lateral initiative. To this end we intend to continue our participation (whenever invited) in all ASEAN or UNHCR sponsored meetings on these

issues.

(The Secretary for Security, Mr G.T. BARNES, and the Political Adviser, Mr S.E. BRADLEY, will attend before the Council to answer questions raised.)

1 October 1988 (SRD 406/8/C)

COUNCIL CHAMBER

CONFIDENTIAL