Basic HTML Version
May 1980
An
Open Letter
toOur
Readers
WE OWE IT to our readers to publish this letter from Thailand. Our editorial sta.ff
recently cooperated in a significant joint e.ffort. The Thai Community Services
Center in Southern California and supportive friends under the leadership.
ofPhraThepsopon, Abbot of the Thai Temple, coordinated e.fforts by the Thai
communities in the United States in aiding the sick, starving and dying Cambodians who
have sought refuge in Thailand. They asked Thurston Lean Sexton, an Ambassador
Co/lege graduate. to assist them. His heartrending /etter to us follows:
Wat Pho,
"W
Bangkok, Thailand
E BRING
vou encouraging reports. The hard work and dedication of
organizations such as the International Red Cross and other international relief
organizations have brought much improvement in the health and welfare of hundreds of
thousands of Cambodian refugees.
"But the problem is not over.
" Renewed Vietnamese offensives against the Khmer Rouge strongholds will bring
thousands more streaming across Thailand's border. Camps such as Ban Kaeng and
Khao-1-Dang will be burdened with dead and dying.
"Aid efforts must now center on
educating for surviva/
the children in the camps.
" Let me tell you now what it is like to walk and talk wi th fathers and mothers who
have watched their children slowly starve to death. To listen to personal experiences of a
people who have seen their nation dest royed by Communists with confiicting political
ideologies.
" Our first visit to the refugee camps was facilitated by the Office of the Supreme
Commander in Bangkok. Through the kind offices of PhraThepsopon, Vinai and 1 were
provided with a car and a driver to visit the sprawling Ban Kaeng camp in the Sa–
Kheo district. With a military escort, my Thai friend Vinai Insa-ard (who speaks fluent
Cambodian) and 1 drove to the province of Prachinburi, where more than 250,000 are
living in 16 overcrowded refugee camps scattered along Thailand's frontier with
Cambodia.
"During our four-hour journey to Bao Kaeng, we watched the countryside slowly
change from the verdant rich rice paddies surrounding Bangkok to the dusty dry fields
of Thailand's eastern provinces.
"Upon arrival at Ban Kaeng we checked in at the front gate with the military
23