THUYỀN NHÂN

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Why Did Three Millions Vietnamese Leave Our Homeland?

Why Hundreds Of Thousands Boat People Died In Search Of Freedom?

Because We Want Freedom, and There Has Been No Freedom in Vietnam !!!


Thuyền Nhân: Boat People,

term used to describe the Vietnamese refugees who fled Communist rule after the Vietnam War (1975) in small boats. More than one million people became refugees. Many perished, and others, upon reaching other Southeast Asian countries, discovered they could not remain permanently. The United States, Canada, and other nations accepted most of the refugees in the late 1970s and the 1980s. It was estimated that up to 25% of those who left Vietnam have perished in the stormy seas. Thousands have died when their boats were robbed repeatedly then sank by Thai's pirates. Many women and young girls were raped then murdered or sold to brothels in Thailand.

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The most visible landmark near the jetty is this statue of a father dragging his daughter out of the ocean. This is easily the most touching symbol on Malaysian shores of the suffering endured by the Vietnamese boat people in their quest for a better life.

Ping Anchorage. Sunday, Sept 29, 2002: ... Daniel Nguyen was among the 1.6 million Vietnamese who, from 1975 to the late 1980s, made the perilous journey across the South China Sea from their troubled homeland in search of a safe haven. For him, his visit to Bidong in March was “like a spiritual and personal pilgrimage.”

“Personally, I would have liked to stay overnight if I could. When my kids are old enough, I would like to take them to Bidong to see their family history.” Nguyen added that he “understood the economics of not maintaining Bidong” so he did not grieve. “Still, I felt a sense of loss to see it abandoned like that. Bidong was a painful experience that we (former refugees) don’t want to re-live. However, it’s a part of our heritage as much as it’s a permanent part of Malaysian history now. Ideally we should work together to maintain a cultural sanctuary for Bidong. It should remain a beacon of freedom, a symbol of Malaysian charity and hospitality and a gesture of friendship between two peoples.”

The boat people created a memorial on the island dedicated to the cause and the Malaysian people. It should be something all boat people should take their children (born in the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, etc) to see. “But it should be seen by all Malaysians as well.”

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Excerpt from GENEVA, 25 June (UNHCR) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):

Since 1975, 840,000 Vietnamese asylum-seekers have arrived in the countries of South-East Asia and Hong Kong. Over 755,000 departed for resettlement in the West. Over 81,000 have returned safely to Viet Nam.

The first boat people landed on the east coast of Malaysia in May 1975. In all, nearly 255,000 Vietnamese boat people were given temporary asylum in Malaysia, where they were cared for by the UNHCR and the Malaysian Red Crescent Society. A total of 248,410 were resettled in Western countries (some of them children born in the camps), and over 9,000 returned to Viet Nam.

At the height of the influx, Malaysia had eight camps for boat people, along the east coast and in Sabah and Serawak. As the wave of arrivals diminished, and as more people were resettled in the West, the remaining population was moved to Sungei Besi.

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Việt Cộng không khi nào nhận lỗi
Diễn Viên Quá Tồi Trong Một Trò Chơi Lớn
VC destroyed Boat People Memorial in Pulau Bidong
Representative Lorreta Sanchez letter
Lời Đảng (gởi bọn tị nạn) - thahuong75
Khóc Người Đáy Biển - Ngô Minh Hằng
Nhớ Để Đừng Quên - Hoài Nam
Nói Với Bạo Quyền - Ngô Minh Hằng


Vietnamese:
Di Tản và Vượt Biên, Vàng Máu và Nước Mắt
Những chuyện hải hùng của Thuyền Nhân
Trần Đức Lương đòi hũy bỏ Tượng Đài Tỵ Nạn, pdf file
30 Tháng Tư và Thuyền Nhân
Tường Trình từ đảo Ko Kra, Thái Lan
Tường Trình từ đảo Ko Kra, phần 2 và 3
Ngây Thơ, Dễ Tha Thứ và Chóng Quên
Trại Tỵ Nạn Galang
Hình Ảnh Bidong & Galang (1978-1991)
Last Days of Bidong (1991)
English:
The Dead Did Exist (Ngo Nhan Dung), pdf file
Vietnam Boat People's Plaque torn down
Boat People written by Anna Johnstone
Clara Maersk rescued 6,954 boat people
Fr. Joseph Devlin: The Boat People's Priest
Vietnamese Boat People in Malaysia
A Boat in the Quest for Freedom
Memories of boat people
Fate of The Boat People
Goodbye Boat People, Hello Cruel World
Vietnamese Refugee: Nguyen's story
Boat People, S.O.S
Links:
Galang Refugee Camp
International Catholic Migration Commission
Forgotten Isle: Pulau Bidong
Boat People: A Refugee Crisis
The suffering of the Vietnamese Boat people
The Price They Paid For Freedom
Vietnam exile recalls boat exodus
Ex-Vietnamese boat people revisit camp
Last Refugee Camp closed in Malaysia
Why they fled? The Fall of Saigon
The last Refugees in Hong Kong
USS Joseph Strauss - Rescue at Sea
USS Whipple Rescue - Desperation


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Statistic:
Vietnam, post-war Communist regime (1975 et seq.): 430,000
Jacqueline Desbarats and Karl Jackson ("Vietnam 1975-1982: The Cruel Peace", in The Washington Quarterly, Fall 1985) estimated that there had been around 65,000 executions. This number is repeated in the Sept. 1985 Dept. of State Bulletin article on Vietnam.
Orange County Register (29 April 2001): 1 million sent to camps and 165,000 died.
Northwest Asian Weekly (5 July 1996): 150,000-175,000 camp prisoners unaccounted for.
Estimates for the number of Boat People who died:
Elizabeth Becker (When the War Was Over, 1986) cites the UN High Commissioner on Refugees: 250,000 boat people died at sea; 929,600 reached asylum
The 20 July 1986 San Diego Union-Tribune cites the UN Refugee Commission: 200,000 to 250,000 boat people had died at sea since 1975.
The 3 Aug. 1979 Washington Post cites the Australian immigration minister's estimate that 200,000 refugees had died at sea since 1975.
Also: "Some estimates have said that around half of those who set out do not survive."
The 1991 Information Please Almanac cites unspecified "US Officials" that 100,000 boat people died fleeing Vietnam.
Encarta estimates that 0.5M fled, and 10-15% died, for a death toll of 50-75,000.
Nayan Chanda, Brother Enemy (1986): ¼M Chinese refugees in two years, 30,000 to 40,000 of whom died at sea. (These numbers also repeated by Marilyn Young, The Vietnam Wars: 1945-1990 (1991))
Rummel
Vietnamese democide: 1,040,000 (1975-87)
Executions: 100,000
Camp Deaths: 95,000
Forced Labor: 48,000
Democides in Cambodia: 460,000
Democides in Laos: 87,000
Boat People: 500,000 deaths (50% not blamed on the Vietnamese govt.)
ANALYSIS: I'd say the most likely total would be 430,000. That's 65,000 executions + 165,000 camp deaths + 200,000 boat people. It's unlikely that VN alone caused 460+87T democides in Cambodia + Laos since estimates of the total deaths in these conflicts only run to a half million or so.



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