14
Adding to her anguish,
the CSD would not tell her when the baby was
mated or where the ashes were until an expatriate nurse repeatedly asked for the information. Because of old Vietnamese beliefs, the woman was especially afraid for her twin baby's life should her sister's ashes be brought back. She reportedly emphatically requested that the remains be kept at a temple.
After
a long time of no news, the ashes were given to the mother at the camp to her devastation. She still cries every time she mentions her child's "innocent, senseless death." Though some deaths are unpreventable, the hospital and CSD Welfare Office lack minimal sensitivity and common courtesy.
Security poses one of the major problems at Whitehead. Gang activities stem from many factors: boredom, hopelessness, realization that present conduct, good or bad, will not alter the bleak future, lack of social-community structure, and the cohabitation of opportunists along side with the powerless.
As the camp provides little productive vehicles for detainees to channel their energy, some are susceptible to being drawn to criminal activities. This is the case particularly for young men and boys though they are not the only perpetrators. Furthermore, the lack of privacy in the camp tempts them with, and allows them easy access to others' persons and property. They watch and know when someone has just received money from abroad or has just been paid for their work in the camp. They immediately demand "loans" or protection money, both of which cannot be refused and are never repaid. This type of extortion is a normal practice, and management never does anything about it.
Single women are especially vulnerable, from the subtlest threatening come-ons to serious sexual harassment, because of the physical and social setting. There is no lock nor door where they live, and quite often there is no family, or friends with enough authority or power to protect them.
The CSD usually refuses to intervene in any assaults or fights until they are over. Often hut leaders and members of the Peace Committee, a boat people disciplinary force, are themselves gang members. Some even have prison records which CSD should already know about. However, CSD still employs and grants these gangsters benefits and authority over the camp residents. Camp residents also question how sometimes gang members have gained access to sections to which they don't belong in order to commit crimes. When someone makes a report to management, the CSD offers no real protection for him or her and puts him or her at risk by revealing his or her identity when confronting gang members with the accusation and letting them go free. It is difficult to believe that CSD with its sources does not know the criminals' identities. The asylum seekers truly distrust the CSD with the security problem and have alleged that the management encourages terrorizing activities. Even though CSD professes to promote peace in the camp, after any break out of trouble, people flock to apply for voluntary repatriation. Therefore, the boat people believe, just as it is the Government's
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