Preventive Action for Refugee Producing Situations

138 Chapters
where they were held. They probably became a factor in helping the invading
North Vietnamese Army ultimately to win.328
The forced resettlement of populations into strategic hamlets caused
large-scale human suffering and was a threat to the lives and security of
millions of civilians. It drove much of the population to sympathize with
the enemy rather than to withdraw its support from them. The great majority
of these forcibly relocated people did not support the government of
Vietnam in the war and thereby contributed to losing it.329 On the
contrary, a recent study shows that those who were forced into strategic
hamlets opened their gates to the Vietcong. Communist cadres and guerrillas
moved freely in and out of the strategic hamlets and were given
supplies and often Vietnamese government rations. Moreover, these relocated
villagers provided intelligence to the Communists and withheld it
from government troops. They did not actively work or fight against the
enemy. Large-scale bombarding and military operations causing 'tactical'
refugees, were mainly based on a Western military concept, and barely
took into account the people concerned, their human needs and abilities.
The result was great instability and turmoil.
The potential role of the United Nations
This sad chapter in Vietnam's history shows how easily people can become
political pawns in the hands of those with power. This was not only
true during the Vietnam War; it has been a reality before and ever since,
and is likely to stay part of power politics for years to come.
The aim of this section is to examine whether UN specialized expertise
and experience might have been able to help prevent the massive
displacement and uprooting of some of these people. The question is
whether today, in a world tending toward an easing of relations between
the major powers, and perhaps holding more possibilities for international
law enforcement of human rights instruments and peaceful resolution of
regional conflicts, the potentials exists for this tendency of using people
for political purposes to abate. We suggest that today there may be more
possibilities for protecting civilians from policies that actively seek to turn
them into refugees.
International human rights law has been extended into national jurisdiction,
as indicated in Chapter 5. This justifies not only the U.N.'s legi-
___________________________
328 Wiesner, Victims and Survivors, (Draft), p. 601.
329 Wiesner, Victims and Survivors, (Draft), p. 607.
Analytical Discussion 139
timate interest but also its action within states's borders to start seeking solutions
to refugee problems where they arise. 330
UNHCR assisted returning ethnic Vienamese expelled from Cambodia after
1970. In 1974, in an extension of its activities that the General Assembly approved
ex. post facto, it also helped Vietnamese displaced persons within their country. 331
The U.N. might have been able to provide technical expertise and humanitarian
assistance to Vietnam at an earlier point than 1974, when UNHCR initiated its
programs for approximately 750,000 displaced persons within the country.
Immediately following the Peace Agreement for Vietnam in 1973, UNHCR
started to negotiate the first phase of its special operation for displaced and
uprooted populations. 332 Dale De Haan, then Chief of Staff of Senator Edward
Kennedy, had visited North Vietnam from 10 to 17 March 1973 to examine the
need for and possible scope of international and U.N. relief efforts in Vietnam. 333
During a second mission to Vietnam by Senator Kennedy's Office in July 1974,
UNHCR initiated a special operation for "displaced and uprooted populations" in
Vietnam 334 (and Laos) in response to requests from these
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330 UN GA res. 41/124, 4 December 1986: The General Assembly "recognizes the
importance of finding durable solutions to refugee problems and recognizes also that
the search for durable solutions includes the need to address the causes of movements
of refugees and asylum seekers from their countries of origin...."
331 UN GA res. 3454 (XXX), 9 December 1975: Report of the UNHCR, in which the
General Assembly for the first time mandated the UNHCR to undertake special
humanitarian tasks reaffirming the eminently humanitarian character of the High
Commissioner's Office "for the benefit of refugees and displaced persons" [emphasis
added].
332 U.S. Congress, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, Aftermath of War: Humanitarian
Problems of South East Asia, A Staff Report, Prepared for the Use of the
Subcommittee to Investigate Problems Connected with refugees and Escapees, 94th
Cong., 2nd sess., 17 May 1976 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1976),
p. 9.
333 The mission report is contained in U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary,
Relief and Rehabilitation of War Victims in Indochina. Part III: North Vietnam
and Laos: Hearing before the Subcommittee to Investigate Problems connected with
Refugees and Escapees, 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 1973, pp. 33-49. Hereinafter cited as
1973 Kennedy Mission Report, as quoted in Kumin, "Orderly Departure from
Vietnam: A Humanitarian Alternative?" (Ph.D. dissertation) The Hetcher School of
Law and Diplomacy, 1987, p. 40, hereinafter cited as 1987 Kumin ODP Dissertation.
334 In 1978, there were still 750,000 persons reported as displaced inside Vietnam,
besides 350,000 refugees from Democratic Kampuchea. See International Migra-