COLD WAR POLITICS
How does Cold War Politics influence international refugee protection? The decision to organize a conference for the Southeast Asian Refugee Crisis was the result of a highly contested debate. While certain countries demanded a political conference, others preferred a technical meeting exclusively focusing on humanitarian issues.
Source : Dutch National Archives (ANeFo), 1945-1989, Nummer toegang 2.24.01.04 Bestanddeelnummer 925-2575
The purpose of this activity is to understand how the United Nations Secretary-General, Kurt Waldheim organized the Conference on Indochinese refugees in July 1979. Initially, the UNSG made a call to all countries to participate to the emergency reliefs efforts by increasing their financial contributions and resettlement quotas. The United Kingdom responded that these measures could not provide an adequate solution to the crisis, which was both humanitarian and political. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher demanded that the UNSG organized an international conference to create a coordinated response to the refugee crisis and establish Vietnam’s responsibility in this situation. While Kurt Waldheim initially thought that this proposal was somewhat ambitious, he decided to ask other countries what they thought about participating to such a conference.
Documents
Instructions
You will be assigned a country : Japan or the Netherlands.
Read the list of questions Waldheim sent to countries and then the reply of the country you have been assigned.
Try to answer the following questions :
– What does the country think about organizing a conference and why?
– Would it focus on humanitarian issues, the political crisis, or both and why?
– Where would this conference take place and why ?
Further Readings
Chanda, Nayan. Brother Enemy: The War After the War. New York: Harcourt Publishing, 1986.
Nguyen, Phi-Vân. “How Boat People Became Refugees, The Indochinese Refugee Crisis, 1975–1979.” Journal of X Studies, forthcoming.
Westad, Odd Arne, and Sophie Quinn-Judge, eds. Third Indochina War: Conflict Between China, Vietnam and Cambodia, 1972-1979 London: Frank Cass, 2006.