Viet stalls repatriation flight

A man claiming wartime links to the former South Vietnam yesterday stalled a forced repatriation flight for more than an hour in Hanoi.

The man, aged 41, was finally escorted down from the Continental Micronesia DC-10 at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport by UN officials after demanding reassurances he would not be persecuted.

The man from the northern port city of Haiphong claimed he had worked secretly for the US-backed South Vietnamese government while still in the north and was later forced into re-education for three years by the communists.

His wife and children disembarked with the rest of the 124 returnees but he held out to seek a private session with UN High Commissioner for Refugees officials.