p How heartily the newly-returned townspeople greeted the officers and men or the Revolutionary Armed Forces who were riding in a Jeep in front of our bus. These people felt, for the first time, that the government was not oppressing and exploiting the populace, but helping it.

p In the main city of Swairieng Province, which is located 166 125 kilometres to the southeast of Pnom Penh, we talked to a representative of the new administration. He is 29-year-old Sisisak Khan, who was a student in Pnom Penh until 1975. Together with all the other residents of the capital, he had been deported to one of the work camps in the village. A few months later he managed to escape and cross the border into Vietnam, where he was received warmly. “My parents (his father was a craftsman) were killed in 1976, here in Swairieng, in our native village, by the Pol Pot cutthroats,” Sisisak Khan told us. Right after the liberation he returned to his home town and was appointed to the town committee and made responsible for security.

p “What does your job entail?" I asked him.

p “At present, security involves, first of all, vigilance with respect to hidden enemies. We must safeguard the lives of the returning people, who arrive completely exhausted. We try to find accommodation for them on the outskirts of the city.”

Sisisak Khan, the young police chief, is once again surrounded by arrivals. He explains where water can be obtained—the plumbing still does not work—and where rice can be procured for the next few weeks. Blankets are available, one for every four persons, and staple domestic items for families that lost everything they owned. Foodstuffs and other goods are being taken from the supplies of the former Pol Pot soldiers, but most of it comes from Vietnam. The SRV population has mounted a broad solidarity programme to help the fraternal Kampuchean people begin their new life.