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SCMP Reporter

ABOUT 2,000 police and Correctional Services officers were massing at Whitehead detention centre earlier today as they prepared to move 80 Vietnamese boat people.

Government sources expected the operation to involve tough confrontations.

And they said their worst case scenario would be for the camp's 10,000 population to launch a wave of violence at the forced removal of their compatriots.

Roads leading to the camp near Sha Tin were closed yesterday and extra officers were assigned to overnight shifts. United Nations staff normally in the camp and all other staff will be refused access to the section targeted today.

The removal operation will take place in a departure centre at which is separated from the main body of the camp. It will target those who volunteered for repatriation but later changed their minds.

Some will be moved to High Island detention centre and others to Victoria Prison as the first step toward deportation next week.

The operation follows a violent two-day operation last year when the Government moved 1,500 people from Whitehead.

The detainees broke down fences, set buildings alight and ran amok for hours as security forces fired thousands of tear-gas canisters to quell the rioting.

'I just hope this operation does not have the same level of violence. Resistance is expected but hopefully it will only come from a few people,' an official said yesterday.

Many of the 150 originally targeted had walked out before the operation began and voluntarily gave themselves up.

'Our worst fear is that the people in the main body of the camp will react and try to break out or get through to their countrymen in the departure centre.' Independent monitors will be taking note of government action at today's operation.

Concern that independent monitors have not been present during previous violent incidents at Vietnamese camps may lead to changes in the monitoring process.

Monitors might be required to be on call in case of unexpected trouble in the lead-up to planned operations, and the Security Branch has been asked to review details such as the number and position of monitors.

Oxfam Hong Kong director John Sayer, whose organisation is one of three that provides monitors, said the system had been in place for 10 months and it was time to review the process.



Tension at Whitehead