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Perhaps the most shocking method that the Khmer Rouge used to enforce discipline was cannibalism. One refugee told a group of assembled Cambodians at Sakaew of an incident he had observed when adultery was considered a crime punishable by death. A married man and a pregnant woman wed to another man had been caught making love. The man was beaten to death. Then members of the local work team were forced to watch the woman's execution. Recalled the witness:
"She was killed by a blow to the back of her neck. Then her stomach was cut open and the baby was taken out. It was alive and crying. The Khmer Rouge held the baby up by the heels and asked who among us would raise the child. None of us volunteered, for to do so would mean we approved of the adultery. The child was dashed to the ground, and the Khmer Rouge cut it open, removed its liver and fried it to eat."
When this story was told to the refugees, they began to laugh. One result of the brutalization of the Khmer Rouge is their sometimes perverse response to death and disease in the camp.
Jossif Sack, one of six volunteer Israeli doctors at Sakaew, told Clark: "We can't figure it out. When I am treating a patient here and causing pain, everyone starts to laugh. Is there something in their personality that makes them laugh when they see people dying or in pain?"
It remains to be seen whether the new refugees headed for Thai camps are suffering from the profound psychological damage evidenced by the Khmer Rouge and their civilian followers. But for almost all the refugees the future is unrelievedly bleak. The majority have no relatives or other ties abroad, and thus they will find it difficult to emigrate. Many have no skills and no training of any kind.
Few of the children can read and write.
Living in a universe that is totally circumscribed by the agonies they have endured, they know nothing whatever of the outside world. During Rosalynn Carter's visit to Sakaew three weeks ago, a journalist asked a group of Cambodian refugees: "What do you think of Mrs. Carter?" The reply: "Who is Mrs. Carter?"
"President Carter's wife," the newsman said. The rejoinder: "Who is President Carter?"