1.
GV Refugees arriving by truck.
0.13

2.
GV Refugees arriving on elephants. (3 SHOTS)
0.40

3.
GV ZOOM IN Refugee camp in bush.
0.48

4.
SV Thai soldiers on road as lorry load of refugees arrive.
0.58

5.
SV Refugees on elephants.
1.09

6.
GV Villagers on roadside watch elephants, and refugees drinking. (3 SHOTS)
1.38


STARKE: "Since the fall of Phnom Penh last January the people of Kampuchea have been crossing into Thailand by truck, on foot, on horseback and on buffalo carts.



"This group became the first to use elephants for their trek through the jungle. The elephants were carrying family members of the Khmer Rouge resistance army, Kampucheans who have remained loyal to the deposed Premier Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge families had been on the trail for a week, and were talking to the Thai border country as an escape route from the cross-fire of Kampuchea's civil war.



"The Thai authorities have built a camp for the Kampuchean refugees in this province but we were not allowed to film inside. Security has been tightened to make sure that the refugees do not leave the immediate border area and travel further afield in Thailand.



"Members of the Thai Marine Corps on escort duty in Trat Province joined the elephant safari. Village life in south-eastern Thailand has been thrown into disarray by the Kampuchean exodus which shows no sign of abating since the fall of Phnom Penh. These are times which the refugees, the thai village people and the elephants will never forget. Nigel Starke, ABC News, on the thai-Kampuchean border."




Initials JS/


REPORTER: NIGEL STARKE

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Hundreds of refugees from Cambodia (Kampuchea) are continuing to pour across the border into Thailand, fleeing from the Vietnamese-backed regime which took over earlier this year. Although the plight of the Vietnamese 'boat people' has attracted most attention recently, the Cambodian refugees are causing serious problems for the Thai authorities. A report from the ABC's Nigel Starke.