G/SENK VISIT TO HONG KONG AND MACAU

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HONG KONG 003970

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP AND EAP/CM
NSC FOR WILDER
FOR G/SENK SENIOR ADVISOR WHITON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/06/2031
TAGS: PHUM PGOV HK CH MC KN
SUBJECT: G/SENK VISIT TO HONG KONG AND MACAU

Classified By: ACTING DEPUTY PRINCIPAL OFFICER LAURENT CHARBONNET. REA
SONS: 1.4(B AND D)


1. (C) Summary: Christian Whiton, Senior Advisor to Special
Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea Jay Lefkowitz (G/SENK),
during a September 29-30 visit briefed Hong Kong Legislative
Council members and NGO representatives on United States
policies toward North Korean refugees and the implications of
the North Korea Human Rights Act of 2004. He also traveled to
Macau to continue his dialogue with NGO activists working on
North Korean refugee issues. End summary.

Meetings With Hong Kong Lawmakers
--------------


2. (C) Christian Whiton, Senior Advisor to Special Envoy for
Human Rights in North Korea Jay Lefkowitz, briefed
Legislative Council (Legco) Members and rights activists
Emily Lau, Martin Lee and Leung Kwok Hung ("Long Hair") on
the role of the Special Envoy for North Korea and the work of
the G/SENK office, during separate meetings on September 29.
He noted USG concern over the human rights situation in
North Korea and the estimated 20,000 - 200,000 North Korean
refugees in the PRC, and noted our responsibility, under the
North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, to facilitate
humanitarian assistance to these refugees. According to
Whiton, these refugees had fled North Korea to escape
starvation and persecution, but the PRC generally viewed them
as "economic migrants" and returned them to North Korea where
they were incarcerated or worse. Whiton told Lau, Lee and
Leung that his purpose in visiting Hong Kong was to increase
understanding of the North Korean refugee situation, in case
any North Korean refugees ever reached the HKSAR. While the
Legco members were unaware of cases of North Koreans coming
through Hong Kong, they professed sympathy for such cases,
should they occur.


3. (C) Lau said she would urge the Hong Kong Government (HKG)
to treat such cases humanely. Recently, she said, many
asylum seekers from Africa and South Asia had arrived in Hong
Kong, but these were largely the responsibility of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Lau urged
the USG to consider providing more resources to the UNHCR.
Long-time democracy advocate Martin Lee described his efforts
over the years to try to protect and expand Hong Kong
citizens, civil and human rights but noted the sensitivity
with which citizens here, and the Hong Kong government,
viewed refugees and undocumented migrants. Leung Kwok Hung
thought that Hong Kong, with its stringent immigration
controls and political sensitivity toward refugees, would not
make a good route for fleeing North Koreans, though it could
serve as an information-dissemination and organizing base for
NGOs from the region who sought to assist these persons.

NGOs Unaware of North Korean Refugees in Hong Kong
-------------- --------------


4. (C) Whiton also briefed Kathi Zellweger, International
Cooperation Director (strictly protect) of Caritas - Hong
Kong, on the role of SENK, including its concerns about the
human rights situation in North Korea. (Background:
Zellweger has traveled in and out of North Korea as an aid
worker since 1995. She is leaving Caritas and will head the
Swiss Government's office for development based in Pyongyang.
End Background.) Whiton inquired whether Caritas was able to
ensure that its deliveries of food aid and other commodities
in North Korea reached the people in need, and were not
diverted to the military or Government. Zellweger said that
Caritas had been successful in this regard, noting that
careful planning for such deliveries was essential. Some
South Korean NGOs, whose "hearts head off common sense," had
difficulties in this area. She said Caritas, with long
experience in North Korea, treated it like any other
"difficult country": they signed an agreement for each
program, then closely monitored implementation. In the case
of food aid, she observed that there remained a risk that the
commodities would be bartered or sold by their recipients,
but this was not necessarily bad in that the food aid
"filtered down" and the practice encouraged development of
the markets. Regarding the recent floods, Zellweger said she
was skeptical about the large number of casualties reported
by South Korean organizations.


5. (C) Zellweger said the North Korean Government (NKG) was
"very pragmatic now" regarding economic policy. The private

HONG KONG 00003970 002 OF 002


markets were "huge" and the Government could not close them
because large numbers of people depended upon them. She
estimated that 75-80 percent of the goods sold in the
markets, including food, household goods, and other items,
came from the PRC.


6. (C) Zellweger said Caritas has not operated any programs
for North Korean refugees in China; doing so would have
jeopardized their relations with the NKG. In her many years
in Hong Kong, she had never heard of any North Korean
refugees arriving here.


7. (C) Whiton and Consulate General control officers attended
two meetings (in Hong Kong and Macau) of the Brussels-based
group Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF),active in
assisting fleeing North Korean refugees. At the two
meetings, HRWF representatives from around the region
described their efforts to bring North Korean refugees
through China and across borders into Southeast Asian
countries. The group,s consensus was that recent events,
particularly disruptions caused by the coup in Thailand, had
already begun to make the Southeast Asia route more difficult
and expensive. The group recommended that the &northern
route8 through Mongolia be expanded as it seemed safer and
more coherent. In Macau, Jill Ferguson-Rigg (strictly
protect),Committee Member of the British Business
Association of Macau, hosted a dinner for HRWF and Whiton,
which Mark Taylor, the Senior Coordinator for the Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP),and poloff
also attended, with Jim Thomas, Director of HRWF.


8. (C) Comment: Whiton's visit helped raise awareness of the
North Korean refugee situation among Hong Kong Legco members
and NGOs. Our contacts were unaware of any North Korean
refugees coming through Hong Kong and the general consensus
was that Hong Kong would not necessarily be a welcoming or
easy destination for North Korean refugees to come through.
End Comment.


9. (SBU) G/SENK has cleared this cable.
Sakaue