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The foreign survivors were obviously of two minds. One Western doctor suggested that the Communists had evacuated the hospitals because "they could not cope with all the patients—they do not have the doctors—so they apparently decided to throw them all out and blame any deaths on the old regime." Another foreign observer called the exodus "pure and simple genocide. They will kill more people this way than if there had been hand-to-hand fighting in the city."
The early hours of the rebel take-over were a time of wild unreality. Westerners and Cambodian civilians gathered at the Hotel Le Phnom cheered as the first Khmer Rouge soldiers arrived. They were smiling and friendly, and the euphoria lasted for several hours. Only later did foreigners and city dwellers alike realize that these first soldiers were actually members of a 200-man private band led by a daredevil freelance general, Hem Keth Dara, 29, and not really part of the Khmer Rouge at all. They were quickly replaced by tough, disciplined soldiers, heavily laden with arms, who swept through the city with loudspeakers. "Leave your homes immediately!" they ordered. When their instructions were not quickly obeyed, the soldiers sometimes punctuated them with random rifle shots. The frenzied evacuation of the city was soon under way. At the Information Ministry, Schanberg reported, a stern young officer held a formal press conference for Western journalists. Present were some Cambodian prisoners, many of whom had been ranking members of the old regime. Among them was former Premier Long Boret, who had elected to stay behind to help negotiate the surrender. The Khmer Rouge officer insisted that there would be no reprisals, but few of the prisoners appeared to be convinced by his soothing words.
Fallen City. After the surrender of the city, Red Cross authorities had tried to convert the Hotel Le Phnom into a protected international zone. But at 5 p.m. on the day of the takeover, Khmer Rouge troops ordered the hotel evacuated within 30 minutes. Hundreds of foreigners fled to the French embassy compound; most of them remained there for 13 days, while fires and shooting broke out sporadically in the fallen city.
The scene within the compound, where about 1,300 foreigners and Cambodians sought shelter, was one of deprivation, acrimony and tedium. There was no running water, and food was limited. Though the Khmer Rouge guards stole a few watches and other valuables, they generally treated the foreigners correctly if sternly. As the days passed, one baby was born, another died. When the seven Russian diplomats arrived from their abandoned embassy, they were loaded down with huge supplies of tinned meat and vodka. They refused to share the goods with the other inmates, thereby becoming the bitter tar gets of Westerners' jokes about revisionist influence.