Each day the war drags on. tragedy is piled upon tragedy. Some say that the conflict in South Vietnam has become a "ceasefire war." At least in Cambodia. where a ceasefire has never been declared. the conflict is labeled for what it iswar. But. as in the past. the true measure of the violence is the toll in civilian war casualties and refugees. Over the past year the number of new refugees created by the conflict has climbed by at least 500.000. These homeless men. women. and children have joined the ranks of over 2 million other refugees who have been displaced since 1970. after the escalation of the war into Cambodia following the American and South Vietnamese army invasion. The Cambodian Government now controls less than 20 percent of the land. and the few provincial towns that remain under its control are bulging with new refugees. Agricultural life has been so disrupted that Cambodias once plentiful supply of rice has turned into a scarcity that threatens famine if American shipments of food were to stop. But nothing symbolizes more the cruelty and mindless character of the war in Cambodia. than the rocket and artillery attacks on the marketplace and civilian areas of Phnom Penh last week.
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refugees