Cambodia: VIETCONG KR ENCIRCLED PHNOM PENH (1of2)[FR&KH]

THE Phnom Penh people had little way of judging the effects of the bombs, shells and rockets the FANK had rained on Communist positions and ordinary villages, but one criterion was their own fear and the destruction caused by the Communists' random shelling of Phnom Penh. These had taken place throughout the war, whenever the Khmer Rouge had managed to push within range. Now the fire was much more frequent, and the principal target was the airport. Over these first three months of 1975, more than 2,500 rockets and shells were fired at Pochentong in an attempt to half the airlift. The city itself suffered rather worse from the bombardment. One day in early February, a rocket landed just outside Le College de Phnom Watt and shot shrapnel and flying glass into a classroom. Eight were killed and thirty-five wounded many terribly, by that one missile. By the middle of February, over 700 rockets had skewed across the river into the city, killing over one hundred people. On March 10 a single 107-mm. Rocket struck just outside the door of the Monorom Hotel in the international section of the city. Eleven people were killed and twenty wounded. The security guard on duty at the door died in the arms of an American television correspondent.Lon Nol's army is trapped and encircled in Phnom Penh from heavy Vietcong Khmer Rouge attacks. Along both sides of the Mekong were the men-in-black were secretly waiting to attack on any convoy that came and went. The convoy brought just two weeks of supplies. It was the last ever to reach Phnom Penh. By the time the crews had recovered from their ordeal and set off back to Saigon, the Khmer Rouge had introduced a fatal new weapon. They stretched nylon line and wire rope, salvaged from tugs sunk in earlier operations, across the river. The lines were supported by bamboo floats and attached to them were small mines, supplied by China, which were detonated from the shore as ships passed over them. Several vessels in the empty convoy were sunk.The refugees in Phnom Penh were in turmoil because they were running out of food supplies. The airlift of food prevented famine, but it did not stop starvation spreading through the city. In 1973 the government's estimate of the daily rice needed in Phnom Penh was 770 metric tons. During 1974, as tens of thousands more refugees arrived, the daily distribution fell to about 694 metric tons. Still more refugees streamed in during the new offensive, but after the Mekong was closed the amount of rice distributed fell further almost every day. It was average for that period was 543 metric tons a day. Throughout February and March the airlift managed to bring in only about 440 metric tons day.Reports by the various charitable relief organizations and investigations by the World Health Organization and by the Senate Refugee Subcommittee had already showed that malnutrition was a serious problem in 1974. In February 1975, the office of Inspector General of Foreign Assistance at the State Department asserted that "children are starving to death" in Cambodia. That conclusion was hard to avoid. In the camps and in the streets, in the cardboard shelters, in the Cambodian Hotel refugee center, one could see sick children everywhere. Those who suffered from kwashiorkor, extreme protein deficiency, had distended bellies and swollen hands, feet and ankles. Their hair was falling out or running light brown, and so was their skin; they behaved was listlessly as one might expect.

Channel: News & Politics
Uploaded: December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Author: AhmekKhmer

Length: 06:40
Rating: 4.00
Views: 9313

Tags: Cambodge  FANK  Kampuchea  Khmer  Penh  Phnom  Rouge  Vietcong  

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