Fleeing Hunger And Death

"There is no more Cambodia "

Not even the gloomiest Old Testament prophet could have imagined the scourges that have afflicted Cambodia.

Nearly a decade of bloodshed and upheaval has left the country in ruins, its population decimated, its economy shattered. The countryside is still ravaged by a war between invading Vietnamese troops who support Hanoi's puppet regime of Heng Samrin in Phnom-Penh and diehard Khmer Rouge guerrillas loyal to ousted Premier Pol Pot.

Seeking refuge from the fighting, tens of thousands of hungry, homeless Cambodian peasants have fled to makeshift refugee camps in Thailand; columns of Khmer Rouge guerrillas have also crossed the border temporarily, to rest and regroup. The exodus has been building since mid-April, when six Vietnamese divisions launched a pre-monsoon offensive to eliminate Khmer Rouge pockets of resistance along the Thai border. leng Sary, Deputy Premier in the Pol Pot regime, has accused the Vietnamese of practicing genocide and a scorched-earth policy in carrying out the relentless drive.

Uncertain of Viet Nam's long-term objectives in Cambodia, the Bangkok government fears that the conflict could spill over into Thailand: after a temporary cutback during the border war with China in February, Vietnamese troop strength in Cambodia is on the rise again and may now involve as many as 200,000 men. Moreover, Thailand simply cannot cope with the new floodtide of escapees. Inundated by nearly 250,000 Indochinese refugees--80,000 Cambodians, 24,000 Vietnamese and 138,000 Laotians--Thailand says its facilities have been strained to the breaking point and its national security is threatened. Amid reports that as many as 300,000 Cambodians are still trying to reach their country, Thai officials last week took drastic action.

Thai soldiers gathered up about 40,000 people living in the makeshift border camps, put them aboard a fleet of buses, issued them enough rice, dried meat and fish to last them five days, and sent them back into the jungles of northern Cambodia's Preah Vihear province. The area chosen, which is near the point where the Thai, Cambodian and Laotian borders meet, was said to be relatively free of fighting. But the terrified refugees insist that the Khmer Rouge guerrillas are everywhere: they insist that thousands in the reverse exodus will die from the bullets of the guerrillas if not from starvation.

The Thai action coincided with a distinct hardening of attitudes all around Southeast Asia. Malaysia (with about 76,000 Vietnamese refugees) announced that it would force all refugees back into international waters and shoot anyone attempting to land. Indonesia (whose refugee population jumped by 7,000, to 31,500, in less than a week) said it would no longer grant even temporary asylum to the refugees. Hong Kong, which had been swamped in recent weeks not only by refugee "boat people" from Viet Nam but also by illegal immigrants from China, dispatched its Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, to Britain and the U.S. to discuss the problem.

As the flow of Cambodian refugees swelled into a torrent, TIME Correspondent David DeVoss visited a troubled sector of southeastern Thailand, just across the border from the site of heavy fighting between the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge. His report:

The residents of the tiny Thai border village of Klong Kwang in Trat province had just finished the spring fruit harvest when the Khmer Rouge column emerged from the jungle. Within an hour, 500 weary Khmers, black uniforms still slick with dew from the shoulder-high elephant grass, were squatting impassively next to stacks of rifles, ammunition and grenades. Remembering earlier atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge against border residents, the villagers offered fresh fruit and ice cream to their uninvited guests.

Farther to the south, 2,500 Cambodians, civilians as well as soldiers, poured across the frontier within two days. Thai patrols that climbed nearby Banthad Mountain to look for Cambodians in need of help reported that jungle trails were littered with abandoned rifles and other equipment. Pickup trucks used by the Thais to transport refugees were so busy hauling away confiscated weapons that Khmer Rouge troopers who had crossed over had to walk to designated transient camps.

In the adjoining province of Chanthaburi, 40,000 fleeing Cambodian civilians occupied three villages and refused to leave. To counter United Nations pressure in behalf of the new arrivals, Thais in the provincial capital, as well as in Trat province and Bangkok, organized demonstrations calling for the Cambodians' expulsion. "Cambodia is like a balloon filled with water," said the province's deputy governor, Samruan Vuthimananond. "We push people back here and they bulge across everywhere else."

At times it appeared as if much of Cambodia's population--once 8 million, now perhaps only half that number--was seeking shelter in Thailand. "The land grows only death," said one refugee. "There is no more Cambodia."

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