VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE: PRESS LINE: NOTE BY NEWS DEPARTMENT
1.
At present, our line is:
"An agreement has not yet been concluded:
announcement to make, we will make it."
when we have an
Not only is this disingenuous, it is also causing surprise among the
UK and Hong Kong media, who (rightly at the time) had been expecting
an announcement some weeks ago. Inevitably, they are assuming that
problems have arisen. One school has it that we are holding back
because of US pressure. It is but a short step to stories that Mr Baker has succeeded in persuading the new Foreign Secretary to back
off from his predecessor's policy. And while we say nothing about our arrangements with the Vietnamese, it remains impossible for us to counter in detail criticism of the policy we are proposing to
adopt. We need two things: a defensible policy; and the chance to
defend it.
2. At present, the arrangements for monitoring are difficult to defend because they are arguably not impartial. They only involve
the Embassy. This was never finally agreed by Ministers. That allows us to say (as soon as we can agree this with Hanoi):
we have concluded an agreement with the Vietnamese on the
bilateral aspects of the arrangements. This has taken longer than expected;
we now need to put in place satisfactory monitoring
arrangements. (This was always our intention.) We are in contact
with the UNHCR and NGOs on this issue;
repatriation under this new agreement will not take place
until we are ready.
The American Position?
[That will depend on what the US say when we make an
announcement. But, with luck, the story could be "UK convinces
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.