p Ka Huan, an elderly gentleman who is regarded in the district as an expert on government—under Sihanouk he was a district chairman—today is the chairman of the community committee in Takeo. “Our town, which consisted of several communities, had a population of 8,520; today there are 6,142 people living here,” he says. Several weddings have been held since the liberation. These were extraordinary events for the population. You probably know that Pol Pot categorically forbade, under threat of severe punishment, marriages based on a free choice of spouses.”

p Some 240 families have already returned to the big village of Chiengteh, which is officially part of Takeo. The village had 3,000 inhabitants in 1975. Each returning family receives up to 40 kilograms of rice per person for the first six months, until the new harvest. The worst of the food situation is over. Mothers sit with their children in the shade outside their huts, some of which have been completely rebuilt. Joking and laughter can be heard almost like before. The horrors these people faced are a thing of the past. The difficulties of everyday life are starting. Many paddy fields are desolate. It is tough to start from scratch again.

In the province of Swairieng, the reconstruction of burnt houses in the settlements has also begun. People have returned home after tremendous suffering and irreparable losses. Their thoughts are once again on the future.