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The Story

Deer Hunter, a movie starring Robert de Niro and Christopher Walken exploded into the theatres in 1978, and became one of the movie industry's historical turning points. This film dealt with lives of U.S. war veterans and their failure to assimilate into society back home after the Vietnam War. Many moviegoers in the U.S. knew someone or of someone who had gone off to fight and lost a part of them there.The impact of atrocities of war had never been more realised nor had it ever been so close to heart.

On the other side of the fence, whilst the Americans were picking pieces of their lives, the Vietnamese people had still to live through the terror, long after the U.S. veterans had left their land. As the last of the U.S. administrators and officers left Saigon on 29th and 30th April 1975, things began to change for the Vietnamese people. Millions of people were displaced, orphaned and millions suffered all through the next 2 decades.

Little did we realise at the time, Malaysia was already feeling the ripples caused by that war .

There were many displaced victims of war, who were desperate to leave the country. They sold whatever they could and bribed anyone that was willing to 'help' them gain a passage out of Vietnam. Those lucky enough, bought themselves space on cramped wooden boats heading for a new life in neighbouring countries. Others tried to trek across to the Thai borders where they hoped to secure asylum there.

Their journey was a perilous one. No one knew what to expect upon arrival in the new land. The boats were usually so cramped, most passengers had little more than crouching spaces. Storms came and went; illnesses and malnutrition took away a few elders, children and the weak; and pirates pillaged boats. Stories were told of pirates ruthlessly raping, killing and throwing victims overboard. Occasionally,bodies were washed up ashore .

To others, the greatest fear was that if marine patrol boats were to catch up with them before arriving at their specified destination, their sentence would be an immediate return to Vietnam and.... a death sentence.

The Boat People

But yet more and more of the 'Boat People', made their journeys despite the slim chances of them making the entire journey unscathed. Many arrived on Malaysian land - praying that the Malaysian authorities would not send them back. They soon learnt that if they 'broke' their boats by crashing them onto rocks in shallow waters, they could buy more time with the immigration officials. The officials had no choice but to house them in camps until proper documentation etc were issued.

The refugees landed wherever they could and realising that there may be more to come, the authorities agreed to allow camps to be set up for them. One chosen camp location was Pulau Bidong.

The Pulau Bidong refugee camp started in 1975 and was sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR). The Malaysian Red Cresce

nt Society, on the other hand, was responsible for the daily operations at the camp.

more story...boat people & the future...

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