THAILAND: KAMPUCHEAN REFUGEES AWAIT DECISIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN JULY.

Record ID: 274781

  • Title: THAILAND: KAMPUCHEAN REFUGEES AWAIT DECISIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN JULY.
  • Date: 3rd July 1979
  • Summary: 1. GV: Klong Leok Bridge with barbed wire barrier across entrance 0.05 2. SV: and CU Thai Soldiers at checkpoint (2 shots) 0.11 3. SV: Canal between Kampuchea and Thailand 0.16 4. SV: Pagoda Cemetery at Ka???bang Temple. 0.19 5. SV: Thai soldiers patrolling along border area, followed by civilians carrying items of trade with Khmer Rouge
  • Embargoed: 18th July 1979 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ARRANYAPRATHET, THAILAND
  • Country: Thailand
  • Reuters ID: LVABSUI2PE2NX1QCZ6RLT3683B6
  • Story Text: A major international effort is finally developing to help the Association of South-East Asian Nations, ASEAN, to meet the refugee problem. The ASEAN Foreign Ministers Conference, which began last Friday (29 June) in Bali, Indonesia, was joined after two days by Foreign Ministers from the EEC countries, the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. An International Conference on the problem will be held in Geneva on July 21st and 22nd.

    SYNOPSIS: At the Klong Leok border checkpoint, Thai soldiers patrol the bridge for signs of any insurgents across the Kampuchean border. Military sources report that Vietnamese troops have withdrawn form the border-line around the main route to Phnom Penh.

    The Khmer Rouge guerrillas who have fled the new Kampuchean administration and are wanted by no country have occupied a small area in southeast Thailand. Thai civilians have set up a small trade route to the Khmer Roug??? refugees.

    These ethnic Chinese refugees in a small camp nearby at Nongcharn number only sixty. they were not part of the forty thousand refugees already sent back to war-ravaged Kampuchea.

    These sixty refugees, unlike the Khmer Rouge guerillas would be candidates for resettlement, but as yet there are no guarantees and there are lengthy delays.

    The Thai government has suspended its repatriation of refugees to allow Western nations time to select those to be offered refuge elsewhere
    In Bangkok refugee officials from Western embassies are working furiously to select people. They regret that five thousand of the forty thousand already sent back to Kampuchean would have qualified for resettlement.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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