HANOI, March 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Vietnam hopes the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to well cooperate with
Vietnam and Cambodia in implementing the tripartite agreement of
repatriating Vietnam's illegally crossed-border migrants to
Cambodia.
   Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh made
the remarks here Wednesday when answering a question about the
result of the tripartite meeting among Vietnam, Cambodia, and
UNHCR in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.
   The meeting, Thanh said, had agreed to correctly implement the
tripartite agreement on January 21, 2002, on the repatriation of
ethnic minority people in Vietnamese Central Highland who were
illegally crossed the border to Cambodia and continue to discuss
concrete measures to implement the agreement.
   Thanh noted that the people, who were cheated and incited to
illegally cross the border to Cambodia and violated the pass
border regulations of both Vietnam and Cambodia, are not refugees
by no means.
   The Vietnamese spokeswoman stressed that tripartite agreement
among Vietnam, Cambodia and UNHCR on January 21, 2002, is the
important legal grounds to the repatriation of Vietnamese ethnic
minority people, who illegally crossed the border to Cambodia.
   The three parties agreed that the repatriation of ethnic
minority people in Vietnam's Central Highland who illegally
crossed the border to Cambodia would be conducted in the safe and
dignifying manner, Thanh noted.
   Up to now, Vietnam has never forced anyone to return home, she
said, adding that Vietnam not only fulfills its commitment in the
tripartite agreement that the country will not punish or
discriminate against returnees, but also decided to treat them
leniently under the tripartite agreement.
   More than 1,000 Vietnamese ethnic minority people in Vietnam's
Tay Nguyen provinces illegally crossed the border to Cambodia due
to cheat and incitement by malefactors last year.  Enditem