Quote:
Originally Posted by BlickBassy
History:
Back to barelang. The word comes from the 3 main island groups, batam,rempang and galang. Ba(Tam)re(Pang)(ga)lang. Before the land bridges were made, galang became a UN refugee came for the boat people, right up to the early 90s when the last of the Vietnamese were repatriated. The luckier ones were sent to USA and other countries but most of them have to go back to VN..
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nono1973
Yes,the Galang refugee history serves a good lesson for a war-torn country that leads its people to seek refuge in another country faraway from home. Ex Vietnam camp aka Galang Camp has many historic sites that were currently lacking maintenance due the lack of fund. Going to this place again in 2016 before all the historic sites one day disappears.
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Hi BlickBassy & Nono,
Thank you for sharing the story about how Batam history & how it has evolved. I really look forward to more stories/updates from you guys.
Sorry to gatecrash into your story/updates. I thought i would add a little background on this refugees issue from our Singapore perspective (Operation Thunderstorm).
I heard of this incident during my NS days in Changi from those senior officers who were deployed then. Very exciting and worrying when i was serving.
There were 3 "exciting" events (Pedra Branca, Hijack of SQ 117 & Operation Thunderstorm) for those who were around those era.
Most people will know about SQ117 but not much on Pedra Branca (Horsburgh Lighthouse) & Operation Thunderstorm. I will not write about SQ & PB.
Short summary of Operation Thunderstorm: (Yup, before my time)
( Click to show/hide )During the fall of Saigon a major event/incident when there were hundreds of thousands Vietnamese refugees escaping from Vietnam war in the mid 70s. Operation Thunderstorm took place when there were 8,000+ Vietnamese refugee trying to land in Singapore from the various vessels, such as
Merchant ships, tugboats, Warships, fishing trawlers, landing crafts. Some of these Vietnamese refugees escaped from the war in their country were trained fighters/military officers among the others and would do anything to land due to the poor state of their vessels and lack of food. The refugees were
well arm with Bazookas, Machine-guns, carbines, M16, granades, etc... were recovered
Singapore Arm forces were activated and deployed to contained and prevent the refugees from landing in Singapore. What i heard was that this incident was very tensed and one wrong move would be the end of many Vietnam refugees & SAF personnel. Finally, Sgp gov negotiated with Indonesia gov to use the Riau Island to house the Vietnamese Refugees.
Yes, we sympathized with these War Refugees Victim then but then Sgp had to protect it interest or Sgp would be completely overrun then. During then there were continuing Vietnam Refugees arriving & Sgp had a Vn Refugee camp at Sembawang Hawkins Road camp till mid 90s.
If you like to know more here is the link to the Event.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Thunderstorm
http://remembersingapore.org/2011/07...-in-singapore/