As a cross fire of Vietnamese and Thai artillery whistled overhead. they grabbed my hands tightly or held onto my legs. Explosions could be heard on all sides of the camp as resistance forces clashed with the encroaching Vietnamese. Nong Samet also holds a thousand South Vietnamese refugees who walked nearly four hundred dangerous miles across Cambodia to reach "freedom" in Thailand. They are liked by neither the Thais nor the Cambodians. and resettlement in a third country is not very likely. In January at Nong Chan. they were locked up in a corral when the Vietnamese army attacked the camp. Left behind by the other refugees. they had to break down the gate as the camp was burning down around them and tanks were rolling in. One of the Vietnamese children. a small. skinny boy about 12 years old. followed me around the dusty streets on Nong Samet. crying "America is Number One." I thought wildly of trying to adopt the boy on the spot. maybe smuggling him out under the backseat of our Land Rover. but a Thai friend convinced me that we could never sneak him through the military checkpoints. Remembering what I had witnessed at the Phnom Chat attacks. I began crying as I envisioned the slaughter that could happen at Nong Samet. A nurse from the American Refugee Committee confided that she was concerned about the psychological stress imposed upon the refugees. most of whom had escaped from other horrors. and who wake up each day not knowing if it will be their last. As I was leaving Nong Samet. an old. man stopped me and said. in desperate broken English. "We are afraid. We are here. almost all children. women. old people.
Keywords matched
Refugee refugees