MALAYSIA: POLICE FIRE TEARGAS AT VIETNAMESE REFUGEES AFTER THEY SET FIRE TO TWO OF THEIR BARRACKS

Record ID: 275047

  • Title: MALAYSIA: POLICE FIRE TEARGAS AT VIETNAMESE REFUGEES AFTER THEY SET FIRE TO TWO OF THEIR BARRACKS
  • Date: 18th January 1996
  • Summary: NEAR KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (JANUARY 18, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV RIOT POLICE OUTSIDE CAMP PERIMETER FENCE AS BUILDING BURNS (AUDIO TEAR GAS FIRED) 0.08 2. LV VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN CAMP GROUNDS 0.12 3. LV BURNINR ROOF 0.17 4. LV RIOT POLICE OUTSIDE CAMP 0.20 5. SLV REFUGEES IN CAMP 0.24 6. LV RIOT PO
  • Embargoed: 2nd February 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEAR KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
  • City:
  • Country: Malaysia
  • Reuters ID: LVA2QBCUQCV3RL07JIJFGBMTJXXV
  • Story Text: Malaysian police fired teargas at Vietnamese boatpeople and hit them with batons on Thursday (January 18) after inmates at a refugee camp near Kuala Lumpur set fire to two of their barracks.

    Witnesses said police moved to disperse the Vietnamese boatpeople when the second building began burning after the first was razed before dawn at the Sungai Besi camp.

    The boatpeople inside the camp quickly left the burning barracks carrying their belongings and watched as a third of the building was razed before the fire was brought under control.

    Witnesses said the inmates were herded by police to a safe area.

    No reports of casualties were immediately available.

    A banner inside the camp read "We are abused and confined for seven years because of our thirst for freedom and human rights." It was the second major clash in seven months between police and Vietnamese at the camp, who have been resisting deportation.

    There are around 4,500 Vietnamese in the camp.

    On June 5, about 13 Vietnamese were injured when police fired teargas and water cannons to restore control after around 1,000 of them broke down a security fence at the camp and streamed out for a day-long protest.

    The Sungai Besi camp in Kuala Lumpur was supposed to close on December 31 like similar camps throughout Southeast Asia. But Vietnam has been slow to process the returnees and the camps have remained open, much to the disappointment of the host governments, who want to be rid of the problem.

    The head of a Malaysian task force on the Vietnamese boat people, Rear Admiral Yaacob Daud, said in Bangkok at a meeting of the International Conference on Indo-chinese refugees on Monday (January 15) that most of the Vietnamese would be cleared from the camp within one or two months.

    The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday (January 16) that 38,000 Vietnamese migrants scattered across Asia, who face deportation in the coming months, can enjoy a "decent life" in their home country without fear of persecution.

    But the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which has determined that the asylum-seekers are not entitled to refugee status, said it would monitor returning boatpeople for at least two more years to ensure that they are not mistreated.

    Vietnam has assured its neighbours that it would speed up procedures for processing boat people and all should be repatriated within six months. More than half of the 38,000 are in Hong Kong.


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