Mr. Speaker. since we were first shocked by the news of Communist Khmer Rouge troops forcing critically ill and injured patients to leave hospitals. and indeed. forcing the entire population of Phnom Penh to march into the countryside. there has been virtually no news from Cambodia. Recent reports from refugees now provide some indication of what is happening. The New York Times. on June 13. saw fit to print a rather lowkeyed account of some of the consequences of this enforced exodus. All persons who left the capital city in vehicles soon found them confiscated and deliberately wrecked by a regime determined to "eliminate private motorized transport." As hundreds of thousands. possibly a million or more people of all ages were herded along. day after day. to unknown destinations. the Times account at least admits to "severe shortages of water." considerable outbreaks of cholera. and evidence of malnutrition. None of this is presented as particularly serious. however. After all. we may want to "recognize" this regime. Surviving refugees have found themselves dumped into uninhabited areas and told to raise more than enough rice for their families--the surplus doubtless will be determined by Communist tax collectors. should anyone succeed in complying. These are city people. dropped into virgin territory without tools. and after the planting season. Under such condition. one looks for neither rice surpluses nor survivors.
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refugees