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SCU Khmer People National Liberation Front spokesman Mr. Thoun Ouk speaking at press conference in Paris
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SCU Mr. Thoun Ouk speaking
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Background: A Kampuchean resistance group has attacked suggestions that refugees in Thailand might be sent home. A news conference was held in Paris on Wednesday (5 March) by the Khmer People National Liberation Front, which opposes both the vietnamese-backed regime of Heng Samrin and the Khmer Rouge forces of Pol Pot.

SYNOPSIS: A statement was read at the news conference by a Liberation Front spokesman, Thoun Ouk. He referred to reports that Khmer refugees who fled Kampuchea from North Vietnamese troops and the forces of Heng Samrin could be repatriated. he attributed the proposals to the United Nations Commission for Refugees. acting with what he termed, the 'pretended authority' of the government in the Kampuchean capital, Phnom Penh. According to the Liberation Front, repatriation would a United Nations resolution passed last November. It would reverse the resolution both in its spirit and its application. The Front said that as long as North Vietnamese 'occupation troops' stayed in Kampuchea the return of refugees could in no way resolve the 'Kampuchean problem'.

The Thai Government has said on several occasions that refugees must return to kampuchea once stability has returned there. Some refugees have said they would be prepared to go back, but only when a 'free or democratic' government was in power.

The Liberation Front claimed that any negotiations between United Nations agencies and the Kampuchean authorities would be 'unjustified and inadmissible'. The role of the United nations should be to preserve Kampuchean refugees of all ages from death.