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p Time, November 21, 1977

p “At present, the general situation of the revolution in Kampuchea is excellent, considering the fact that ours is a backward country just freed from devastating war launched by the US imperialists.”

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p So said Cambodia’s Premier Pol Pot at a banquet in Peking some weeks ago. After the leader of Kampuchea visited China, some changes in South-East Asia’s most militantly xenophobic regime appeared. Obviously at Peking’s urging, the government once again acknowledged, though not diplomatically, neighbouring Thailand, with whom it had previously had little contact. Last month the country’s Foreign Minister, Ieng Sary, came to New York City, where he played host at a United Nations cocktail party for 200 diplomats. He even provided the entertainment: a film extolling the glories of brave new Kampuchea.

p For a close-as-possible look at the new Cambodia, which is all but closed to foreigners, Time Correspondent David De-Voss visited three camps in Thailand, at the border provinces of Surin, Chanthaburi and Trat, which have been set up for some of the thousands of refugees who have run the gauntlet of mines, snipers and punji stick booby traps along the frontier to reach freedom. His report:

p . . .Backward is one way to describe the country. Brutal, according to those who have escaped, is more apt. Significantly, the escapees include more and more former Khmer Rouge fighters who once served as the enforcers for Angka Loeu, the “Organization of High”, which runs the country as a fiefdom. . . .

p .. .The new controllers, who wear red scarves as signs of power, have proved to be even more vicious than the old ones. Says Tap Ereth, a former soldier who returned to his village to farm after the fall of the non-Communist government in 1975: “From 6 in the morning until the moon began to rise, the controllers yelled at us to grow more rice. We did grow more, but it was always taken away.”

p Cambodian cities, including Pnom Penh, have become little more than transportation railheads for rural co-operatives as the government, citing a threat from “spies” of all sorts, forced people into the countryside. The co-operatives are spartan. Some of the refugees in Thailand are from a typical co-operative in a village called Kok Tlok. As they describe it, the village, really a large plantation, houses 10,000 residents in thatched huts, with up to three families 85 in each hut. The co-operative is run by only five controllers. . . .

p . . .The refugees say death is everywhere. Seemingly simple misdeeds such as fraternization outside one’s immediate family, being awake after 9 p.m., falling asleep at the nightly political lecture are punished with death. Every month about 250 villagers die from starvation, but to eat a chicken or suggest killing a cow is treason. Says Soeung Meayeat, 28, who escaped six months ago: “There is nothing to do when parents die and children are taken away except wait for death so you can see them again.”

p Children are separated into communal work camps at the age of twelve and strictly segregated by sex. Single youths are required to chop trees, dig irrigation ditches and clear stumps. Since they work harder than others in a co-operative they receive more food. But even they do not always get enough. At Pronet Phrac, a work camp west of Battambang, only ten youths are assigned to catch fish for 8,000 residents. Result: four or five people die of exhaustion every day.

p In the youth camps, young men and women can be executed merely for talking to one another or sitting together. The only opportunity to find a mate is in the field. When a likely spouse appears, an elderly emissary inquires about his or her availability. . . .

p . . .Premier Pol Pot has declared that another 2% of the population are still “enemies of democratic Cambodia”. Presumably they are in danger of what the government euphemistically describes as “the elimination of contradictions".

Cambodia has become a net exporter of rice. There is food available, but so much is reserved for export that the standard meal has become fish gruel and banana leaves. Even that is served in communal dining halls, which helps accomplish two government aims: to break up family life and limit opportunities to hoard food, which is needed for escape. Family names arc being wiped out; in the new order Cambodians are now referred to by their controllers and the government simply by surname, with the term met (comrade) in front. 86 Comrades are expected to do what they are told. The alternative, aside from death, is escape to Thailand, but that is becoming more difficult.