THAILAND: KHMER ROUGE REFUGEES POUR INTO THAILAND

Record ID: 275002

  • Title: THAILAND: KHMER ROUGE REFUGEES POUR INTO THAILAND
  • Date: 2nd May 1998
  • Summary: SA NGAAM PASS, THAILAND (MAY 2, 1998) (RTV ) 1. SLV REFUGEES INCLUDING CHILDREN, CARRYING BELONGINGS 0.14 2. SLV REFUGEES EATING 0.19 3. CU BOY EATING 0.25 4. SLV MORE REFUGEES WALKING 0.38 5. TS MAN WITH FALSE LEG WALKING WITH BELONGINGS DOWN PATH 0.55 6. MV/SLV KHMER ROUGE SOLDIERS USING BULLDOZER TO MAKE CLEAR WAY FOR REFU
  • Embargoed: 17th May 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SA NGAAM PASS, THAILAND
  • City:
  • Country: Thailand
  • Reuters ID: LVAD2Q9JYUGKBAK9ETKZZ7ZI773U
  • Story Text: An intensified government campaign against Khmer Rouge guerrillas in northern Cambodia has forced nearly 30,000 civilian followers of the guerrilla group to seek refuge in Thailand.

    Thai military officers said the refugees, suffering from months of severe food shortages in Khmer Rouge-controlled jungles near the northern Cambodian town of Anlong Veng, started pouring into Thailand's Sisaket Province on Friday (May 1) and continued through Saturday (May 2).

    They said dwindling numbers of Khmer Rouge guerrillas continued to resist against advancing Phnom Penh troops, who had seized most of Anlong Veng from the rag-tag group in early April after months of see-saw fighting.

    The Khmer Rouge have continued fighting in the region despite the death of their former leader Pol Pot of apparent heart failure in mid-April.

    Pol Pot, 73, was quietly cremated at a jungle clearing just a few hundred metres (yards) from the Thai border amid rumbles of artillery and tank rocket fire.

    Pol Pot was widely blamed for the death of more than a million Cambodians during his fanatical 1975-79 rule of the country.

    Khmer Rouge leaders told reporters in mid-April that Pol Pot's death would not prompt them to lay down weapons.They vowed to continue fighting in a bid to regain control of Anlong Veng.

    Military sources said a large number of fresh Cambodian refugees entering Thailand on Friday suffered from malaria and dehydration due to a scorching heat wave felt in the border area in the past month.


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