Cambodian refugees in "appalling conditions”

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33413, 20 December 1973, Page 6

Cambodian refugees in "appalling conditions”

Refugees from the war in Cambodia were living in appalling conditions, said Miss Philippa Hepburn, of Christchurch, who visited refugee sites in Phnom Penh recently.

Without a guarantee of security, it was almost impossible for Western aid organisations to give the refugees the help they desperately needed, said Miss Hepburn.

A National Airways Corporation air hostess, she worked for the American group, the Thomas A. Dooley Foundation, in Laos. 1 Five thousand destitute refugees lived on one site she visited in Phnom Penh. They were crowded into the ground I floor of an unoccupied hotel l complex, and were without ifood, money, or work. j There was just one water pump. Home was a double 'bed with which the refugees ; were supplied. Miss Hepburn, who found their situation “terribly depressing,” was convinced she could work among them providing the basic medical care necessary. But the foundation could not get a guarantee of safety from either the British Embassy or the United States Embassy. The only escape from the city in case of attack was by heliIcopter, and all British and I American women had left.

At another site she visited, the refugees gained some security, and a water supply, by living in a temple yard. Their home was four bamboo poles, and a blue, plastic roof. There was no sanitation, and the people suffered from malnutrition.

MOBILE HOSPITALS The foundation, she said, was preparing for the time when it could work in Cambodia. It had given six mobile hospitals, formerly used for civil defence in the United States, and hoped to use them in Cambodia.

“There is absolutely no medicine in Cambodia, and it is desparately needed,” she said. “Fairly simple medicines would give these people a more comfortable lift.”

There were 70,000 refugees in Phnom Penh alone, she said.

In spite of being within hearing distance of constant bombing, Miss Hepburn found

i the city the most beautiful she has visited. None of its (attractive buildings had been damaged, there were large i parks and lovely gardens, and the streets were always clean. “As long as the street sweepers are about I think there is hope there,” she said. LAOS CONTRAST This cleanliness contrasted sharply with her experience in Laos. Miss Hepburn, a registered nurse who graduated from Princess Margaret Hospital in 1965, was based in a small village near Vientiane. During her stay, which was extended, she did the work of three nurses, combining her own duties with that of the immunisation nurse, and the mother-and-child helper. “Permanent staff are paid only about $7O a month, and with such low salaries it’s difficult to get good people,” she said. Miss Hepburn ran mobile clinics, often outdoors, in the small villages along the Mekong River, where refugees from the north had been settled. She found tropical medicine relatively simple.

Cough, colds, malaria and dengue fever, and intestinal worms were the most common ills. Sanitation and poor diet caused the spread of illness.

Serious cases were sent to the local hospital, staffed by Filipino doctors. Miss Hepbum described conditions there as primitive. The stench, dirt, and decay were appalling, and it was difficult to get operations done. The nurses did no routine nursing chores, but only took temperatures, dispensed medicines, and attended to bandaging. Each patient had to bring in a “watcher” to look after him. Miss Hepburn also expressed indignation about the lack of a laundry and kitchen in a new wing of the Mahosot Hospital, which was of the latest design. Miss Hepburn is unsure of the future of Western aid under the proposed coalition government in Laos. “All Americans have to leave, but it is hoped the foundation will be allowed to stay on,” she said. She considers the foundation’s projects well-directed and productive. “The money goes to the people, and not to administration,” she said.