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What role awaits Sihanouk is highly uncertain. In a series of statements last week, the mercurial prince insisted that he is neither a Khmer Rouge nor a Communist but a neutralist. "I am a very independent man," he said. He may have some voice in the new regime, perhaps as its representative abroad, though he has indicated that what he would really like is to be named lifetime head of state. Whatever the role, he said, he would advocate a Cambodia that would be nonaligned, progressive and nonCommunist. That would surely bring him into conflict with Khieu Samphan, who would surprise nobody by keeping Sihanouk in a figurehead role for a decent interval and then dumping him.
Rumbling Trucks. The most urgent task confronting the new regime is, of course, administration of the country. Some 2 million refugees (from a population of only 7.6 million) must be fed and sheltered. Government troops must be demobilized and put to work. The shattered economy must be reconstructed; in particular the lush ricelands, which once yielded surpluses, must be restored to productivity. Order must be restored in the capital, swollen to three times its normal population. In a calculated effort to thin out teeming Phnom-Penh, presumably to get refugees into the countryside to plant rice in time for the rainy season and perhaps to facilitate the search for hidden government and army officials, rebel sound trucks rumbled through Phnom-Penh toward week's end, warning of immediate attack. Panicked, thousands of refugees fled the city.
One advantage enjoyed by the Khmer Rouge is its apparent popularity among the general public, possibly because of relief and gratitude that the war is finally over. That reservoir of good will could quickly dry up, however, if the new rulers launch widespread reprisals or move quickly to create a harsh, regimented state. Addressing himself to these potential pitfalls, Khmer Rouge Politburo Member Chau Seng assured a Paris press conference last week that while "there will be some trials in Phnom-Penh, we will judge in a humane way." The new regime will in turn be judged—by its own citizens and by the rest of the world—on the basis of just how humanely it does behave.