Facing Repatriation, Viet Refugee Tries Suicide

HONG KONG —  A Vietnamese refugee in a detention camp attempted to kill himself Thursday in the first such incident reported since Hong Kong began the forced repatriation of “boat people” to Vietnam.

A government spokesman said the refugee, Dao Van Hang, 25, tried to hang himself at the Chi Ma Wan camp on Lantau Island. He was taken to a hospital, where a spokeswoman said his condition was fair.

Of the 56,000 Vietnamese interned in Hong Kong, 2,640 are at Chi Ma Wan, including 1,611 who have failed to qualify as refugees and are to be sent back to Vietnam.

The spokeswoman said it was not clear whether Dao Van Hang had gone through the screening process. She said he was being held in a segregation area after being involved in a dispute over a theft.

The suicide attempt came just two days after 51 Vietnamese were flown back to Vietnam on Tuesday. On Wednesday, many of the Vietnamese demonstrated peacefully against the forced repatriation, and for a second day, thousands demonstrated again Thursday.

“They chanted slogans and waved banners, that’s all,” the spokeswoman said.

Their banners bore slogans such as “Death Before Repatriation” and “Forced Repatriation Is Homicide.”

More than 2,000 of the Vietnamese demonstrated at Sham Shui Po, in busy Kowloon, and 3,000 others at Hei Ling Chau, a former leper colony on an island off Hong Kong. About 1,000 took part in a march at Whitehead camp in the New Territories, close to the border with China.

Relief workers in the camps said tension has been rising sharply since Britain made it clear that it will go ahead with plans to repatriate the boat people who do not qualify as refugees, a category usually limited to cases involving family reunification.

All Vietnamese arriving since June 16, 1988, have been screened to determine whether they are refugees or “economic migrants” seeking a better life. About 90% are denied refugee status.