TNAG-2062-FCO40-2940-Vietnamese-boat-people-repatriation-1990 — Page 35

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3.

As Lord Ennals and Mr Raison commented in their report, there

were administrative hitches during the visit. Given local

conditions these were almost inevitable. The main problem was poor communications. The Embassy had agreed one provisional programme with the MFA in Hanoi which was supposed to have been communicated to the Haiphong authorities. But the latter had prepared a totally

different programme, which was the cause of some discussion when

Lord Ennals and Mr Raison arrived in the late morning of 8 January.

It was, perhaps, unfortunate that the accompanying press were

admitted to the tense meeting between Lord Ennals, Mr Raison and the

Haiphong authorities to discuss the programme. It gave the press the opportunity to report on delays and obstruction by the

Vietnamese. This meeting was also the source for reports that the

British Embassy interpreter was doing a poor job.

4. There were problems arising from the misunderstandings over the

programme in Haiphong. The local authorities had made arrangements

for only one day of interviewing rather than the two days that Lord

Ennals and Mr Raison had assumed they would undertake. As a result,

the authorities had apparently alerted the returnees within their

jurisdiction to be available on 8 January, not 9 January; and could

not guarantee that they would be at home on 9 January. Although I

believe there was no sinister intent in this,

no sinister intent in this, individual officials, notably the representative of Haiphong's Foreign Relations Bureau (the local affiliate of the MFA) seemed inclined to capitalise on

the situation. He tried hard to dissuade Mr Raison and Lord Ennals

from pursuing their quest to see returnees other than those they saw on 8 January. And, according to the Ambassador he even tried to prevent us from leaving Haiphong on 9 January to visit the family staying with a sick relative, on the grounds that we did not have travel permits (we did and we made the journey). It was also this official whom Lord Ennals and Mr Raison had to convince after the

first interview that the presence of any outsider was unacceptable. The Ambassador explained to me that Hanoi's control over officials outside the metropolitan area is tenuous, but it was unclear whether the Haiphong Foreign Relations Bureau official was being cautious or, for whatever reason, deliberately obstructive.

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