Vietnamese in Malaysia Beaten, O.C. Group Says

Vietnamese refugees in Malaysia are being beaten and threatened in a Malaysian government effort to force them to return to Vietnam, leaders of an Orange County-based support group said Thursday.

They implored the U. S. government and human-rights groups to aid the refugees.

At an emotional news conference, two men who said they lived until recently in a Malaysian camp recounted grisly stories of refugees beaten by soldiers, sprayed with chemicals and enduring prison-like restrictions.

More than two decades after the Vietnam War’s end, thousands of Vietnamese refugees remain in camps in Southeast Asia, facing a June 30 deadline for the camps’ closings as an international agreement expires and efforts begin to return them to Vietnam.

But many refugees say they fear retribution if they are shipped back to their homeland, and the prospect of being returned forcibly has triggered anger and dissent in the camps and among supporters in the United States.

Speaking out on the refugees’ behalf, the Garden Grove-based Refugee S.O.S. Task Force told reporters that the Malaysian government is employing violence to force the refugees’ “voluntary” return to Vietnam.

Some refugees terrified of retribution by their country’s current Communist government would prefer suicide to going home, they said, relaying a report of suicides aboard a boat carrying refugees back to Vietnam.

Bi Pham, 72, who said he spent more than six years at a refugee camp in Malaysia, described refugee protests and soldier retaliation.

Those remaining in camp “are very unhappy with the living conditions over there,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. Nonetheless, he said, they still do not want to return to Vietnam.