[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 91 (Tuesday, June 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H5612-H5613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          REVERSAL ON BOAT PEOPLE: IRRESPONSIBLE AND DANGEROUS

  (Mr. BEREUTER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, when people's lives and safety are 
involved no one should take pleasure in saying, ``I told you so'', and 
I take no such pleasure. But any Member who reads, in an objective 
manner, this morning's Washington Times article about violence in the 
refugee camps should feel some remorse for this body's role in the 
debacle currently unfolding in Southeast Asia.
  Let me briefly catalog the damage wrought so far by section 2104 of 
H.R. 1561, the American Overseas Interests Act and the rejection of my 
amendment to delete that section.
  Two days of rioting by 3,000 boat people in refugee camps in Malaysia 
have caused at least 13 injuries. Earlier riots in Hong Kong's camps 
caused more than 200 injuries; of the 1,400 boat people in Thailand 
camps who had volunteered to return peacefully to Vietnam, 
[[Page H5613]] most are now resisting repatriation; 1,000 volunteers at 
camps in Indonesia have withdrawn their requests to return, and 
voluntary repatriation has also ceased in Hong King with 196 of 200 
volunteers now refusing to board a scheduled flight to Vietnam.
  The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and other objective observers 
lay the blame squarely on this legislation for this violence and for 
the collapse of orderly voluntary repatriation.
  The repatriation of Indochinese boat people determined by the UNHCR 
to be economic migrants, not political refugees, was bound to be a 
contentious process under the best of conditions. But when this body 
refused to strike this dangerous and irresponsible provision, it gave 
the 40,000 plus boat people in the camps false hope of resettlement in 
the United States and, thus, created the conditions for violence that 
we see unfolding throughout Southeast Asia.
  This Member fully understands and shares the desire to provide fair 
and humane treatment to those in the refugee camps. But instead this 
legislation has led to violence in the refugee camps, caused the 
collapse of voluntary repatriation, and will also likely encourage 
another wave of boat departures from Vietnam, putting people at great 
risk on the high seas and swelling the refugee camp population.

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