Asia Times: Refugees: Much fame, small gain


	March 29, 2002	atimes.com

The Koreas

PYONGYANG WATCH
Refugees: Much fame, small gain
By Aidan Foster-Carter

Part of the fun of penning a weekly column is fitting it in around other commitments. My last piece was filed ahead of a week in Korea - the other Korea, since you ask. I took issue with Dr Norbert Vollertsen, self-appointed scourge of North Korea and all those whose shades of gray he rejects as appeasement.

But Korea never stands still, and nor does Dr V - dubbed "hyperkinetic" by one newspaper in one of many interviews in the wake of his latest triumph. This of course was the high-profile rush by 25 North Korean refugees into the Spanish Embassy in Beijing. From there they were swiftly whisked off, first to the Philippines, then on to Seoul and freedom. Nice one, Norbert. Two cheers.

To give the good doctor his due, he sure practices what he preaches. Unlike a mere wordsmith like me, he puts himself on the line. This was a well-organized media coup all around. New clothes for the 25 as they traveled to Beijing, so they didn't stand out like a shabby sore thumb. Good timing, before a United Nations human-rights review of China. Careful targeting: the Spanish Embassy - unlike the German, his first choice - was lightly guarded (not anymore), and Spain currently holds the European Union presidency.

The media side was well handled too. A TV crew tipped off and hiding in the bushes, ready to film the dash for freedom. Even the Financial Times of London printed the photo. A well-chosen group, comprising families and a couple of orphans. Prepared press statements, eloquently stating the risks these ordinary people, whose only crime was hunger, faced if returned again to the tender mercies of their own government.

North Korean refugees are an issue close to my heart. Three years ago I was commissioned to write a biggish report on the whole issue for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. (This used to be on the UNHCR website, but it seems to have vanished in a site revamp.) I've also done two updates since, and at this rate will be penning another. All along I've warned that the trickle of recent years could turn into a flood, and berated all states involved - both the Koreas, and China - for treating these innocents so badly.

But heart and head conflict. Obviously I'm glad for the 25, as for the seven before them who last summer fled to the UNHCR's offices in Beijing; and after a longer standoff were also let go to Manila and Seoul. It's good to see China shown up for its disgraceful policy of refusing to accept any North Korean escapees as refugees - nor even to let the UNHCR work in the border areas to do interviews and decide for themselves.

For a minute, the speed with which this incident was resolved even made me think China had softened its line. Fat chance. Instead, just like the UNHCR last year, the predictable price of escape for a few was a brutal crackdown on the many left behind. Reports from border areas even speak of uniformed Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) security men operating openly (as they've long done in plainclothes) alongside their Chinese colleagues: raiding ethnic-Korean homes and churches, and hauling off anyone they find to an uncertain fate.

All this I know is thanks to - you guessed - the indefatigable Dr V, whose breathless daily e-mails report the backlash and exhort us all to protest. But this is where it gets iffy. What did he expect? In arranging this stunt, did he carefully weigh the costs and benefits? Or is the name of the game confrontation and publicity, even if this creates more suffering than it resolves? Is there a game plan, a strategy in all this?

Vollertsen even feigns surprise that since this episode and all the attendant publicity, his own visa for China hasn't been renewed. Disingenuous or what? That's his own choice. More serious will be if others of the plethora of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - mainly South Korean and religious - working with North Korean fugitives in China's northeastern border areas, who preferred to operate quietly in the admittedly limited and variable space tacitly granted by Beijing in letting them be there at all, now find themselves restricted or booted out.

Will the net effect of this be to increase the sum of human welfare? Can't say I see it. And while Vollertsen's sincerity is transparent, his tongue runs away with him. His next trick, he openly threatened, would be to organize refugees to protest at the soccer World Cup, which - as if you didn't know - is being co-hosted by South Korea and Japan for a month from late May. Again, the idea is to get maximum publicity. And again, the target is well chosen - not least because Seoul expects Chinese fans to pour in by ferry in the tens of thousands to cheer on their team. Shouldn't be hard to sneak in a few refugees.

But again, questions arise. One: If you're going to do that, was it wise to put South Korea on alert? Two: Knowing how desperately seriously Seoul takes these big occasions when it displays itself to the world - as in the 1988 Olympics - isn't there a risk that pulling any stunts and raining on the parade will cause an official and/or popular backlash against Northern refugees in the South?

And considering that in the end it is South Korean citizens and taxpayers who must bear the financial burden of both today's defectors and - take a very deep breath - tomorrow's unification, is stirring up antagonism really the way to go? Then again, some of Vollertsen's critics stick in my craw more than he does. But that's another column.

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