THAILAND SAID TO USE FORCE TO REBUFF LAOTIAN REFUGEES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630074-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 74
• Publication Date: February 19, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25 :CIA-R
1
DP90-009658000302630074-0
NEW YORK TIMES
19 February, 1985
7'fi~rFla~d Said to Use Farce ..
To ~ehu~fLcxot~an Re~g~ee,~
." By BERNARD GWERTZMAN ~' .
Sped~l to The Nes Yor1c Timms / _... ~.
VTASAINGTON, Feb. 18 - A United Thais R+orried by Inflm But he said that despite these assttr-
5tates Senator and refugee e~cperts I antes, reports of Laotians' being
The Thai Government has denied .~ ~~ back persisted.
xnat a ..ors to le a Tna; Government back all Laotian refugees, but has indi-
ecrs~on to u_ae .once to turn back Lao- toted that it is concerned about a large
fan refuee~ - includin many a?ho increase in the number of Laotians, in-
once oualtt in the .1.A.'s "secret ~ eluding Hmong, who made their way in
~;' boats and rafts across the Mekong last
Reports in the Thai press in recent I y~ State Department officials said.
weeks have said that the Thai Govern- I Last year, Thailand said nearly 20,000
went, in an effort to stem a rise in Lao- ~~~ of whom about 25 percent
san refugees, had refused since the ,were believed to be Hmong, arrived in
aeginning of th e year to permit the Lao- ! Thailand, the officials said. The two-
Yans to continue. trussing the Mekong yam. total for 1582 and 1983 was about
River into Th: iland. There have been q,000,
reports that Thai border troops have Thai newspapers, however, have re-
"I urgetttly request your interven-
tion," Mr. Hatfield said to hfr. Shultz,
"in obtaining from the embassy in ~I
Bang}:ok timely and accurate report-
ing on this life-threatening problem
and R?hat the United States is dotng to
moderate Thai policy."
procedures Set for Refugees
Under long-established procedures,
Thailand is supposed to accept all those
seeking asylum, pendi.-tg screening to
determine if those crossing the borders
are legitimate refugees fleeing perse-
cution or retribution, or are simply mi-
grants looking for better opportunities.
If they fall into the ref-sgee category, -
theywould be elio.ble for emigration to
the United States, while if migrants,
they could be returned to Laos.
A problem, State Department offi-
cials said, is to determine who carries
out the screening. The officials said
they had asked the Thais to permitrep-
resentatives of the United Nations F.igh
Commissioner for Refugees to carry
out the interviewing, and that agency
has expressed some interest in doing
so.
P. State Department official with long
experience in refugee affaizs said the
Thais had voiced concern that the
United States might close down its
resettlement program, leaving 'Thai-
land with thousands of Indochinese -
Viemameseand Cambodians as well as
Laotians -with no place to go. '
This official said that although it was
the official Administration policy to
continue to admit about 50,000 Indochi-
rilled some of the Laotians. ported that a basic polity shift was
Of rime concern to Senator Mark 0. taken, Mr: minter said:
Ha a Repabtican of Oreeon and He ~~, for instance, a report in the
re Qee spec-iat:sts is the fate of the Feb. 2 issue of The Bangkok Post. The
HIDOnQ hill t>enole. who were Dart of article, datelined Nong Khai, s town on
the clandestine army that fought tine the Mekong River, said, "Hundreds of
of o tetnamese or many years tx~ gmp~ irlbesmen fled across the Me-
fore the Ceat ante ence yen kph River from Laos yesterday but
cut o~f~unas oe~~3 ono I9'7S were barred from landing by security'
State Department officials said that, forces stationed at Bung Kan District."
there had been very little reporting The article said that more than 300 of
from the embassy in Thailand on the t>ie MB people had been refused per-
situation on the Laotian border but that mission to land by the Thai border
no officials questioned the accuracy of ~, and had returned to the Laotian
the Thai press reports. side north of the Pakading River in the
_. ?Grave Concern' Expressed Paksane district of Vientiane, the Lao-
Senator Hatfield sent a letter to Sec- tiara capttal'
retary of State George P. Shultz today ?- - Statement by Governor
expressing "grave concern" after say- `~G~vernor Sakda Ophong told re-
ing he was not satisfied with an earlier porters at the scene that it was the Gov-
confidential exchange with the United ernmeat's policy not to accept any
States Ambassador to Thailand. -, more Laotian refugees,,, the paper
A similar view was expressed by said.
Roger P. winter, director of the United Another ~ report, in The Bangkok
States Committee for Refugees, anon-. World on Jan. 7, said that ameeting in-
governmental group, who said in an in-
terview that since the beginning of
January, "Thai officials have imple-
mented comprehensive patrolling
along the Mekong River to interdict
newly arriving Lao."
Mr. Hatfield said in his letter: "For
10 years, under three U.S. administra-
tions, we have been largely successful
in insuring that there is refuge for flee-
ing Indochinese. And now the door
seems to be quietly swinging shut on
refugees from Laos."
Mr. Hatfield has had a particular in-
terest in the plight of the Hmong, many
of whom live in Oregon as refugees.
volving Prason 5unsiri, secretary gen- nese a year, the Coordinator for Refu-
eral of the Thai Netional_Security l gce Attains, H. Eugene Douglas, had
Council was held in early January and ~
it was decided "to take stem action '~
over the influx of Laotian refugees."
Mr. Hatfield said that "the apparent II
erosion of first asylum for refugees
from Laos is a grave concern:" ~,
He said he had sent a teleg: am to ~
John Gunther Dean, the United States
Ambassador in Bangkok, and received ',
a response on Jan. 21 that the United ~
States would be working with Thai au-
thorities "to insure that newly arriving I
refugees from Laos will have access to
,screening and that refugees ir. poten-
Itial jeopardy will not be returned.".
reportedly told Thai officials that
Washington's goal was to reduce the
flow of refugees.
The problem of the Hmong is more
complicated than those of the other
refugees, State Department; officials
said. Because of difficulties encotnn=
tered by many Hmong in adapting to
American life -there are now about,
60,000 Hmong in the United States -;
many of the Hmoag in Laos have asked
to ,stay in Thailand rather than emi-
grate here. '
Of the. 50,000 Laotians now in T`rai-
land, some 30,000 are F.mong.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25 :CIA-RDP90-009658000302630074-0