European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 4, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine a trial Marina policeman stands guard a vietnamese boat people Are pulled to Shore. Overtaxed by the influx of refugees Thailand was refusing landings. Now it says Asylum hut been restored. Reluctant reception for Viet refugees by Peter  press la Kieu Mai by 16-year-old daughter a a lice Farmer fled Vietnam by boat last May seeking a belter Lio and expecting to join an aunt inthe United slates but thai Pira lds in  China sea rammed the boat drowning Many of the 22 passengers and forcing other survivors into the water. Mai by said her sister Lici aunt and two other women were repealed by raped by Iho Piragos in eight Days of Captivity Belore she was tossed into Iho sea. She was. Rescued by a passing Lional Axil her relatives arc missing and presumed dead. The unsmiling Young woman now lives in ban Thad Camp near Thailand s vol lilo Border with Cambodia whore boat people Are sent to discourage More rom coming she said  never return Homo despite Horo deals "1 would commit suicide first.". Vietnam s boat people continue to flee  Samo desperation and expectations snore than.13 years alter the communists Dele aled  South Vietnam in april 1975. But they now sail Inlo a world  to receive them. In 1979, asian nations already giving Refuge to More. Than 200,000 boat people pushed tens of thousands More from their shores and threatened to shool others at the Geneva conference last july Ailiese nations promised to restore Lempo tary Asylum and Western countries pledged to resettle Iho refugees. But that consensus has been unravel de by a recent surge of what appear Lobo economic migrants and people seeking to join relatives abroad. In 19bb, Many vietnamese drowned As aul hotties pushed boats Elf Thailand. Borne were beaten in Hong Kong Camps others wore abandoned to die Al sea Western nations say they cannot sustain their res allement guarantees of 1979. In recent urgent consultations nations agreed to another International Conle Renco on the refugees next year but this meeting will aim to Doler instead of ease the  is some cause Lor optimism Hal Vietnam eager to end its isolation now is willing to take Back Large groups of Boal people after previously branding  and accepting Only a handful. Vietnam recently reached a repatriation Accord with Hong Kong and seeks agreements with Malaysia and Thailand but a major problem is that it Only wants the Low who Volunteer to return. In Hong Kong 439 vietnamese have applied 16 return. But of the some 60,000 boat people in the Region s Camps Only a dozen others have volunteered said Sergio Vieira dmello head of the Asia Bureau of. The . High commissioner Lor refugees. V. However  others May apply in the first group returns solely and securely. Vietnam pledged  would lace no recrimination and Britain which rules Hong orig has promised financial Aid in reintegration. We Hope Hal a successful Resinto Galion of those would break 13 years of assumptions. That once they leave Vietnam.1 choir resettlement in third countries is automatic that Ihu Edon is there and they be got to give it a try he said. More than 680.000 Boal people have tied since 1975 and about 61s.qoo have been resell led. Most by Iho United Stales-.-. Bul in recent years decreased resettlement has left thousands of Longs Ayers in the Camps in 1987, some 28.000 More boat people . Number since 1982. But in the first nine months of this sunday december 4. I 988 year the number soared to 37.676 vietnamese. The upsurge has overtaxed the patience of Asia s developing nations resulting in the most serious Asylum crisis in years. In Thailand police Ana fishermen pushed Oil or rammed arriving boats and Western officials said More than too vietnamese drowned. Hundreds of others were stranded on islands with no regular source of food or water. The government and the Media called the vietnamese economic opportunists Thailand halted resettle men abroad and sent All new boat people to ban Thad Camp in the no Man s land of the cambodian Frontier where they live alongside some 30c.ooo cambodians huddled on the Doorstep of the decade old War in their country Thailand said in april that Asylum had been Ros lored but sources say the push oils continue. Hong Kong Ondora its open door policy in Juno and began screening new arrivals to separate refugees from economic migrants who Are Lobo repatriated. On june 19, guards Al Hei Ling Chau Center used Teal fists and Batons to Beal vietnamese when they went on a hunger strike after complaining they wore not gelling enough Lood. More than 4,000 other vietnamese were crammed Inlo the lop floors of a 12-Slory la Clory building described As a dark Dank prison until Lor human habitation. Authorities later closed the Camp. Meanwhile. Hong Kong Community groups stepped up Public protests against the vietnamese and 73 percent of resident surveyed in Ono Public opinion poll opposed allowing the boat people to land. Malaysia threatened to close its Palau biding Camp housing More than 10,000 boat people by the end of next year. Ii warned it will  away boats from its shores. A . Navy ship refused to retrieve a Drifting boat full of vietnamese in Iho South China sea last june and some starving passengers said they had to resort to cannibalism. Fifty two passengers survived 37 Days at sea bul 58 died these and of her tragedies have illustrated the dilemma How to preserve the right of Asylum without encouraging More people to Llee. Various officials support a package o measures including repatriation renewed pledges of Asylum and limited resettle men based on Region wide screening Tike Hal in Hong Kong. The United Stales has quietly expressed support Lor involuntary repatriation of economic migrants under certain conditions it also has proposed a moratorium. On resell Lemeul and narrowing its program to vietnamese who qualify As immigrants or Are of special. Concern like those held in re education Camps because of . Ties during the War. In a recent interview in Hanoi assistant foreign minister Vul Khoan said Vietnam was trying 16 discourage the Toat exodus by per milling More of its. Citizens to leave on Jal liners including Hall american children being resettled in the United states and former inmates of re education Camps  now allows some citizens to travel abroad to visit relatives or for other personal reasons he said. The United Stales has taken Hall of the More than. 145,000vietnamese resell led since lha orderly departure program began in 1979. The 2,221 it took in september was a month s record bul political. Differences with Vietnam have stalled efforts to resettle former inmates of to education  officials argue that Largo numbers of the recent. Boat people Are economic migrants and Hong Kong says Only eight of the first 89 Boal people it has screened were True refugees ,. But 62  some 2,300 vietnamese who. Landed in Thailand in the first half of this year said they or their relatives had spent time in re education. Six percent Sull ered discrimination As ethnic chinese. 1 another three percent fled Lor both  policies Are the main  communists use to govern the country said Nguyen Hui Giao a Lormer lawyer who is the vietnamese administrate at ban Thad. They cannot control the population without trying to control their  Giao 49, spent 1c years in re education Tor speaking out Lor human rights and said he would never go Back to Vietnam. I -. " Don t think Halland will keep us Here All our lives he said i will Waitas Ibn Gas they wan  " the stars and stripes Page 13