Word: cambodias
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Since the 1975 Communist takeover transformed Cambodia into Democratic Kampuchea, the prophecy of the new national anthem has been amply borne out. A series of political purges and a disastrous mass resettlement policy, combined with a nine-month-old border war with Viet Nam, have splattered, indeed drenched the country with blood...
...Rouge deserters combined with restive peasants to form a 25,000-man "liberation force" under the leadership of So Phim, a disaffected former Vice President of Democratic Kampuchea. The Vietnamese already occupy large areas of the so-called Fishhook region south of Mondolkiri province and a strategic bulge of Cambodia from Cheom Ksan to the Mekong River. They are now fighting for control of Parrot's Beak, where the U.S. invaded in 1970 (see map). Vietnamese troops are massing in Laos, near the Cambodian frontier. When the monsoon ends in October, clearing skies will make air support possible...
That scenario for conquest could be risky for Hanoi. A full-scale attempt to take over Phnom-Penh might well bring Viet Nam into direct conflict with Cambodia's formidable ally, China. But some analysts doubt that Pol Pot can rely heavily on Peking. In the past month he has sent emissaries to China with pleas for supplementary military aid. Though he has received gratifying messages from Chairman Hua Kuo-feng ("We support your struggle"), no substantial increase in aid has been forthcoming. Diplomatic observers in Southeast Asia believe that if the Pol Pot regime should be toppled by Viet...
Whoever rules Cambodia in the foreseeable future will reign over a devastated land. According to refugees who have escaped into Thailand, the once lush province of Battambang in Western Cambodia is bare of all fruit and bereft of most of its people. In eerily deserted villages, papaya trees stand like bean poles, their fruit, then their leaves, having been torn off by starving peasants. According to the British Foreign Office study, since 1975 an estimated 2 million Cambodians have died of starvation and disease as a result of a campaign to drive city dwellers into the countryside, where there...
...Thailand last month was Kim Am, 42, a Canadian-trained physician who survived the purges by masquerading as an illiterate peasant. According to Kim, at least 80% of the Cambodians he observed before his flight were suffering from some form of mental illness. "The only emotional outlet in Cambodia is thinking about escape," he said. "Sometimes a change of environment can cure such problems, but I'm afraid most of our people have been permanently damaged." Which is another way of saying that Kampuchea's national song is no longer an anthem, but a dirge...