p The liberation of the country and the programme of the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation, which says that all may return to their native towns or villages, have 160 brought about a real resettlement of people, but this process is far from over.

p I saw a constant stream of families moving along Highway No. 1. People often have to wait a long time for their turn to cross bridges, many of which have only one-way traffic. The flow of people in both directions is extremely heavy. Here and there there are wagons pulled by buffalo, piled with modest household possessions. Mostly the people themselves drag two-wheeled carts over the long distances; sometimes it takes families weeks to reach their destination.

p The most wide-spread means of transport is the bicycle, with a large intricate back fashioned from boards and bamboo to carry sleeping mats made of bast, a sack of rice or manioca, and the single family cooking-pot, black with soot. The vehicle moves along on its rims, as the Pol Pot gendarmes cut all tyres to make it more difficult for the deported people to escape from the camps. From time to time, one can see low wagons, put together from any available materials. Serving as wheels are rusty automobile rims, flywheels from sewing machines, circular chunks of wood fashioned from logs and even small millstones connected by an axle. Pushing it ahead of them, the emancipated Kampucheans, mostly peasant families, are making their way home along the roads in all directions.

Their clothing consists of remnants of material slapped together. They are emaciated from the hunger that lasted years and from the forced labour imposed by the Pol Potleng Sary clique; they are exhausted from the long journey. They suffer under the burning rays of the tropical sun and have nothing to keep off the torrential rain. They do not know what to expect when they get home: house burnt to the ground? Wells poisoned? But they are hurrying home: married couples, children, elderly parents, some of them reaching for their last ounce of strength, but nonetheless happy to be rid of the tyranny, forced labour and wholesale killing.