Vietnamese artillery continues to crash in from above. Those who look back toward the Phnom Chat camp see their straw houses swallowed in flame and crushed by a squadron of Sovietbuilt tanks. Border officials later confirm refugee report that Vietnamese soldiers who swept into the area shot the wounded who could not make it to the border. An estimated three thousand villagers from nearby hamlets were taken prisoner by the Vietnamese and moved to an unknown location. With most of the resistance forces in the area moving into the nearby forest to regroup for counterattacks. the mass of refugees wait for Thai border guards to grant them permission to cross onto Thai soil. Some four hundred thousand refugees. one out of every fifteen Cambodians still alive in Indochina. live in temporary United Nationssupplied camps and villages on either side of the Thai border. Some wait hopelessly for resettlement in Western countries. although the U.S. refugee program. paralyzed by internal conflict. has been insensitive to the dimensions of the problem. Many others still dream of going back to their original homes in Cambodia. free of both of Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese invaders. They place their hopes in the antiCommunist leadership of Prince Norodom Sihanouk and his prime minister. Son Sann. The camps under their direction house the majority of refugees. Though the forces of the Khmer Rouge outnumber the nonCommunist resistance by a ratio of three to two. and are better armed (by the Chinese). they have little political power and little control over the civilian camps. It is the revered image and international statesmanship of Sihanouk and of Son Sann (see "The Quiet Cambodian." by Elizabeth Becker.
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refugee refugees