Hong Kong Police Storm Refugee Site : Boat people: Tensions among 56,000 Vietnamese grow in the face of a promised new round of forced repatriations.

HONG KONG —  Riot police firing tear gas stormed a refugee camp today, seizing more than 400 weapons and arresting boat people only hours after a group of 111 Vietnamese voluntarily returned to their homeland.

It was the second consecutive day of disturbances in Hong Kong’s tense detention centers, where more than 56,000 Vietnamese are awaiting resettlement abroad or a one-way ticket back to Hanoi.

One Vietnamese was killed in what officials said was a gang fight in a closed detention center Thursday night.

The clashes came in the face of a promised new round of forced repatriations to Vietnam by British and Hong Kong authorities, who say the voluntary program is too slow to make a substantial reduction in the population of the colony’s crowded camps.

At least 21 officers and eight boat people were hurt today in the melee in the Chi Ma Wan detention center, where authorities said Vietnamese threatened security forces and threw stones at them during what was described as a “routine search” for hidden weapons.

More than 300 police and detention officers in full riot gear stormed one section of the camp, firing canisters of tear gas into crowds of boat people. Police said they arrested 19 Vietnamese and seized 430 weapons in the operation.

Secretary for Security Geoffrey Barnes said authorities negotiated for five hours with the boat people to give up their weapons and allow a search before officers moved in.

“However, despite repeated efforts to obtain the cooperation of the boat people and warnings that the search would have to be carried out regardless of their objections, the boat people still refused to give up their weapons,” Barnes said. “In the circumstances, (detention officers) and police were forced to conduct the search as planned.

“The boat people, in order to make the operation more difficult, pushed their women and children to the front. In the end, it was necessary for (tear gas) to be used to disperse the crowds and to reduce the possibility of serious injuries.”

The clash came hours after a group of 111 boat people voluntarily left Hong Kong this morning on a chartered airliner for Hanoi rather than face months or years in the crowded camps without hope of resettlement abroad.

Those who left today made up the eighth group to return to Hanoi under a U.N.-sponsored voluntary repatriation program, bringing to more than 865 the number of Vietnamese who have willingly gone home.

Police said there was no apparent reason for the uprising at Chi Ma Wan.