Speech #960112625

In a makeshift hospital we saw young children with distended stomach and shriveled arms and legs. It was a very emotional experience. Regardless of ones political feelings about these particular refugees or about the dynamics of the refugee problem. it is devastating to watch people die. We beseeched the representatives of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) to provide more personnel and especially medical assistance. We visited a number of other camps where conditions varied. At Camp Pulau Bidong. off the Malaysian coast. the children looked well and physical conditions seem much better. This was partially due to the fact that sanitary facilities were somewhat improved. In this camp. as in others. hundreds of people stood around and cheered when we arrived by helicopter and we were inundated with letters to be mailed in the United States. In Malaysia. the government has threatened to shoot the boat refugees and in fact has towed boats back out to sea. There is. of course. no justification in civilized society for such inhuman behavior and we pressed them for an explanation. Its response. while wholly unsatisfactory. was that any change in the racial composition of that country would cause political tremors that it could not deal with. It was also fearful of creating more acceptable human conditions for the refugees since some of its own people would object and be envious of this government attention. We concluded our mission with a 2day visit to Hanoi in which we held extensive meetings with refugee officials and a long discussion with Nguyen Co Thach. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Thach gave all the usual reasons for the departures and expulsions from Vietnam and urged the normalization of relations between our two countries. He indicated that his government would attempt to prevent further boat refugees from leaving but would agree to an orderly and safe emigration process. Whether this occurs remains to be seen. My impression of Vietnam is of a repressive government in deep trouble. not only politically because of the conflict with China. but because it is devastatingly poor and probably unable to feed its population.