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China expelling Koreans
Repatriated refugees face serious reprisals
John Pomfret, Washington Post
Monday, July 23, 2001
©2001 San Francisco Chronicle

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/07/23/MN211008.DTL

Beijing -- China has begun a campaign of forced repatriation of North Korean refugees, according to an international humanitarian organization that expressed "grave concern" about what will happen to the refugees when they return home.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said in a report to be released today that posters had appeared along the border between China and North Korea exhorting Chinese to turn in North Korean refugees and warning of steep fines for harboring a refugee. The report, citing refugees' accounts, said those sent back to North Korea faced reprisals ranging "from interrogation, reeducation and imprisonment to capital punishment."

The report said the repatriation campaign had reached its climax after a North Korean family of seven last month sought refuge at the U.N. refugee agency's Beijing office. Under intense international pressure, China allowed the family to leave the country, and they ultimately went to South Korea. China made the decision right before its successful bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, prompting speculation that the decision was made to mute criticism of its human rights record.

It is unknown how many people have been repatriated since the campaign began in May, but the group estimated that it was in the thousands.

"Refugees and aid workers report an increase in the number of arrests and forced repatriation since the beginning of the campaign," the report said. "A resident living in one of the border cities reports that 50 people are being repatriated here every other day, compared to 20 per week in the past."

Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to China, mostly in search of food. A famine caused mostly by bad agricultural and economic policies has ravaged North Korea since 1994, causing an estimated 1 million to 2 million to die out of a population of 22 million.

Last year, China forcibly repatriated another North Korean family, even after U.N. refugee officials had determined they would face persecution if they were sent home. U.N. refugee officials accused Beijing of violating the U. N. covenant protecting U.N.-designated refugees from forced repatriation, which China has signed.

Beijing says North Koreans who flee to China are "economic migrants," not refugees. China signed a treaty with North Korea to return refugees, but the treaty has been implemented only sporadically.

Doctors Without Borders pulled out of North Korea in early 2000 when it was denied access to some of North Korea's poorest people. Several Western aid agencies have said the North Korean government refused to allow food aid to be distributed to the neediest people, but channeled it instead to families tied to the ruling Korean Workers' Party.

©2001 San Francisco Chronicle   Page A - 8