Let us bring up Ha in US, say relatives to UN

THE Californian relatives of a 16-year-old Vietnamese orphan last night appealed to the United Nations for permission to raise the boy.

Ngo Van Ha is being held at Whitehead detention camp while United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officials determine his future.

Thousands of Vietnamese in Hong Kong camps are waiting to discover whether Ha will be returned to Vietnam against his will or allowed to join relatives in Los Angeles.

His uncle and aunt in San Gabriel, California, Nguyen Dang Vu and Ho Thi Phouc Tuyet, say they want Ha to join them.

''We hope the United Nations will be generous enough to give Ha the chance to come here,'' said Mr Vu, a first cousin of Ha's late father.

''We will not ask the government for any money. We will support Ha and he will live with us.

''We will treat Ha just as we treat our own children. He will not have to work - he will have a good life and he will have the support of parents.'' The couple's five children, who did not speak English when they arrived in the US in 1987, have flourished.

One son, Trinh, 25, is completing a doctorate in chemical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Another, Tuyen, 22, is about to receive a degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Riverside, while 21-year-old Truong is in his third year at UCLA, majoring in mechanical engineering.

The couple's youngest son, Trieu, 17, has been accepted at the University of California, Northridge, and their only daughter, Tram, 15, is at secondary school.

Mr Vu, a former schoolteacher, taught Ha when the family lived in North Vietnam.

He appealed to the UNHCR in Hong Kong to put aside its policy of repatriating unaccompanied children to be with their siblings - in Ha's case, in the former North Vietnam.

''They should overlook the policy, because Ha does not have the potential or the ability to raise his younger brother and sister,'' Mr Vu said.

''We've been trying to get Ha to the US since 1990. The paperwork started in 1991.'' His wife said she had checked on Ha's siblings in Vietnam at Christmas and found they had no family support.

''I was only able to see Ha's 13-year-old sister,'' she said.

''She had to move from one house to another, working hard and trying to get the support of neighbours.

''If Ha goes there I'm afraid he will be a poor student, not influenced by good people and will not learn the value of a good education,'' she said.

The couple's daughter, Tram, said she hoped to guide her cousin through the local school.

''I'll help him, not only in learning, but in trying to help others,'' she said.

The family's comfortable life is a far cry from Ha's experiences in Vietnam and at Hong Kong's Tai A Chau and Whitehead detention camps, according to Tram.

''We live in a really pleasant neighbourhood,'' she said.

''It's quiet, there are new houses being built, the apartments are really nice, and there is no violence in the neighbourhood.''