Word: relief
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...save the Cambodian people from mass starvation continued to gather steam last week. A group of Western nations asked U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim to declare the sprawling refugee camps along the Thai border to be internationally supervised "safe havens," protected by the force of world opinion. Private relief efforts were also gathering momentum. On the day after Thanksgiving a DC-8 cargo plane carrying $1.5 million worth of canned meat, baby formula, antibiotics and other supplies landed at Phnom-Penh's Pochentong Airport. It had been chartered by Operation California, an organization headed by two former antiwar activists...
Responding to international appeals, the radical Marxist regime of Viet Nam's ally President Heng Samrin has finally modified its rhetoric about the relief effort. It no longer denounces the effort as a veiled attempt to assist the 20,000 to 30,000 Khmer Rouge guerrillas still fighting the Vietnamese invasion...
...believe that 165,000 tons of rice, as well as huge amounts of oil, sugar, fish and dried milk are needed within the next five months to prevent massive deaths from hunger and related diseases. Said Ouch Borith, 28, the neatly dressed director of Cambodia's International Aid Relief Program: "We disregard ideological considerations when it comes to assistance. We will gladly take it from any country. Rice and medicines are the main priorities, but the emphasis is on rice." Since the Khmer Rouge abolished currency, rice has become the only medium of exchange. One kilo fetches a kilo...
...cars and trucks running with paper clips and baling wire, and rows of women bent over sewing machines have all been destroyed or closed. Until 1975 the Ruseokeo textile plant on the outskirts of the city employed 600 workers making cotton cloth. With help from OXFAM, the Oxford-based relief agency, it has since reopened, but only half of its looms are being used. Reason: a lack of spare parts for the steam boiler that drives them. Complains Manager Tiv Chhivky, 45, "I don't know what parts to ask for. We want to reconstruct...
Despite the willingness of Heng Samrin's regime to accept outside assistance, only about one-fourth of the necessary supplies has been committed. The government has not acceded to the proposal by relief agencies to establish a "land bridge" from Thailand, over which thousands of tons of rice and other goods could be trucked in. But aid officials now sense a willingness to cooperate among Cambodian officials. It remains to be seen what will be the impact of the new attitude. Some 180,000 Vietnamese troops are preparing a final offensive against Pol Pot's surviving forces. Their...