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Refugees: Framework for a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict

Implementations

Refugees – 1991

The United Nations Advance Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC) contained a program focusing on the repatriation of Cambodian refugees and the resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) during the Cambodian civil war. The Secretary-General, in close consultation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), designed a program to organize and establish repatriation routes, reception centers, and resettlement areas for refugees. “These activities would need to be carefully coordinated with the mine-awareness programme begun earlier in 1991 for Cambodian refugees and displaced persons in the camps along the Cambodia-Thailand border” (United Nations).¹

In order to facilitate the return of IDPs and repatriation of Cambodian refugees, the Australian government provided $1 million to the first stage of one of the largest rebuilding projects in history.²

On November 21, 1991, a tripartite memorandum of understanding was reached between the Thai government, the Supreme National Council (SNC), and the UNHCR. This memorandum related to the repatriation of Cambodian refugees and displaced persons from Thailand. Thailand’s cooperation was essential in the safe and orderly return of all Cambodian refugees and displaced persons to their homeland.³ The return of refugees and IDPs was perceived as an essential element of the peace process. It was essential that these Cambodians be given the opportunity to take part in the Constituent Assembly election and in the building of the Cambodian nation.

360,000 people were to be returned from Thai border camps, 90 percent of whom were under the age of 45 with almost half being under the age of 15.⁴

“Cambodia – UNAMIC Background,” United Nations, accessed July 2010, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/unamicbackgr.html.
“Grant to Help Displaced Cambodians Go Home,” COURIER-MAIL, October 23, 1991.
“Thai-Cambodian Joint Communique Issued,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, November 25, 1991.
“Cambodia – The Facts: A Shattered Nation,” New Internationalist, Issue 242 (April 1993), accessed July 25, 2010, http://www.newint.org/issue242/facts.htm.

Refugees – 1992

According to the Human Rights Watch Annual Report, at the end of 1992, the UNHCR had safely transported over 200,000 refugees back to Cambodia. However, the repatriation plan had been reformulated several times throughout the process, weakening safeguards that were to ensure the free choice of destination on the part of refugees. The diminished protection was significant because the political factions controlling the Thai border camps were seeking to maintain their control by coercing some refugees to resettle in their small “zones” near the border.⁵ As part of the repatriation program, every returning family was promised two hectares of farmland.⁶ However, three months into the repatriation process, the UNHCR had found almost no suitable land for the returnees. In Battambang province, where most returnees wanted to settle, more than half the farmland was believed to be mined. The remaining land was unavailable. Therefore, the UNHCR was forced to redesign its repatriation package. Instead of farmland, the returnees were now offered a village house, tools for a new business, or cash – $50 per adult and $25 per child.⁷

“Cambodia,” Human Rights Watch World Report 1993, accessed July 25, 2010, http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/WR93/Asw-04.htm#P105_41321.
Shaun Williams, “Internally Displaced Persons and Property Rights in Cambodia,” Refugee Survey Quarterly (2000): 19(2): 194-200.
“Returning to a home in ruins REFUGEES: A few Cambodians return, braving mines and devastation,” The Globe and Mail (Canada), June 29, 1992.

Refugees – 1993

The repatriation of Cambodian refugees in Thailand progressed as scheduled. Altogether, 231,358 people had been repatriated back to Cambodia as of January 1, 1993; 124,959 Cambodians remained on Thai soil.⁸
“According to Lt-Gen Sanan Khachonklam, head of the Coordination Centre for the Repatriation of Cambodian Refugees, a total of 339,109 Cambodian refugees and displaced people, or 78,231 families, had been repatriated under the programme,” according to a report on the radio. “Meanwhile, 18,000 Cambodians have returned by themselves. After the departure of today’s group of 525 refugees, about 16,000 Cambodian refugees and displaced persons will remain at Site 2. They will be repatriated gradually, and all will be back in Cambodia by April” (BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 1993).⁹

By the end of April 1993, 370,000 Cambodian refugees and “displaced persons” marked the beginning of a much longer and more difficult process of resettlement and reintegration.¹⁰

“Cambodia: Cambodian refugee repatriation “progressing as scheduled,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, January 14, 1993.
“Cambodia: Last Cambodian Refugee Camp in Thailand Closed,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, April 2, 1993.
Grant Curtis, “Transition to What? Cambodia, UNTAC and the Peace Process,” UNRISD Discussion Paper (1993): DP48, accessed July 25, 2010, http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/%28httpAuxPages%29/2F0008467C7D3E…$file/dp48.pdf.