24 Tay nguyen residents are not political refugees
Ha Noi, April 5 (VNA) -- Viet Nam's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh reiterated today, April 5, that the 24 Central-Highlands residents, who illegally entered Cambodia were definitely not political refugees. The spokewoman was responding to questions by AFP, France, and Reuters, Britain, correspondents at a regular news briefing in Ha Noi this afternoon.
Ms.Thanh said:
"The 24 Central-Highlands residents, who illegally entered Cambodia were definitely not political refugees. They had been incited by others and had violated Viet Nam's regulations governing entry into and exit from the country.
Based on bilateral agreements for entry-exit visas between Viet Nam and Cambodia and their bilateral cooperation to preserve border stability for the benefit of both peoples and their neighbourliness, Viet Nam's Government had asked Cambodia to return the 24 residents and avoid any precedence provoking illegal cross-border entry into Cambodia for resettlement in a third country.
Viet Nam will certainly not punish the 24 but is willing to help them reunite with the community in line with its lenient and humanitarian policy.
We also re-state that the United States is causing difficulties in solving the problem and encouraging illegal cross-border entrances, thus destabilising the region. It is clear that the U.S. is attempting to take advantage of the incident to interfere in Viet Nam's internal affairs. Again, we demand an immediate end to that moves of the USA".--VNA
