At the Burke Mountain L More than 300 people took in the day-long festivities at the last weekend's Burke Mountain Labor Festival where they were entertained by such groups as the Bargain Jam Band (far left), the Kobzar Dancers (right, bottom), Keaton and Dean, Wayne Igguiden, Tom Hawken, Raul Figueroa, Linda Chobotuck and others. Among the groups was the Griffin-Bryson Trio (right, top), made up of Tribune Leditor Sean Griffin, his wife Libby and bass player Neil Bryson, who all donned for- abor Festival . . . SNR. Ot ps mal wear especially for the occasion. George Hewison (centre, top) who shares the property with his family and the mortgage company, carried out the duties 4° master of ceremonies as well as solo performer, while chef Bert Ogden (centre bottom) doubled as auctioneer. The event, which is already booked for next year netted the Tribune close to $600. Vision Works — Sean Griffin photos Canadian eyewitness on Vietnamese border Refugees from Cambodia ‘a tragic sight’ For weeks now the numbers of refugees streaming out of Cam- bodia (Democratic Kampuchea) into Vietnam has been growing by the thousands and for Nancy Pocock, a Canadian Quaker who recently spent five weeks in Vietnam including some days in the border areas, the exodus was a “tragic, pathetic event.” And it is all the more tragic since the Cambodian border aggression against Vietnam and the numbers of Cambodian refugees has created enormous new difficulties for a country which is seeking to overcome the ravages of nearly 30 years of war, she said in an in- terview with the Tribune during a brief stopover in Vancouver. The Khmer Rouge liberated the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh in April, 1975, opening the way for the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea, but from the beginning the new regime has been closely linked in policy with China and in January, 1978, after breaking off boundary negotiations with Vietnam, Khmer troops precipitated a number of border clashes with its neighbor. In response, Vietnam took defensive action and in February, it issued a statement calling for an end to all hostilities and outlining its preparedness to convene a meeting to conclude a treaty on the boundary issue. But Cambodia has responded only with denunciation of the Vietnamese proposals. The clashes, although they have now been curtailed to periodic raids, continue. And the mass exodus of refugees into Vietnam grows. “We drove right up to the border areas, particularly in the area around Tay Ninh,’’ Pocock noted, outlining her tour in Vietnam. “‘We saw where the Cambodians had been shelling, including one area where an apartment was com- pletely destroyed. “They had also hit a school, reducing it to rubble, but for- tunately no one was in it at the time.” ~ : Pocock, who visited Vietnam on a aid mission for the Canadian Friends Service in 1973, and returned this time along with two priests from Canada, said that her group had been particularly shocked by the devastation in the village of Tri Ton, ‘‘a beautiful village, surrounded by lush green fields. “The Cambodian shelling had completely destroyed it. The people had sought refuge in a pagoda and they were slaughtered there. The bodies were still in- side.”’ Defense actions by the Viet- -namese army have prevented full scale military incursions by the Khmer troops but, according to Pocock, they_now stage lightning raids and then withdraw into the nearby mountains. Frequently, she said, they will burn a whole village and destroy its stores of rice, the precious food ina country that has been near the brink of famine following two successive crop failures. Adding to the pressure on food supplies are the thousands of refugees, fleeing what appears PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 9, 1978—Page 10 from local accounts to be a harshly regimented regime. Pocock and the two priests, one of whom was Father Tinh, a Vietnamese priest now teaching at Laval University in Quebec, talked to several groups of refugees. “Jn one group there was an old woman carrying the traditional poles on her shoulders, in which there were only little bits of coal. She had a little girl with her and when we spoke to them they told us the rest of their family had been shot. Now they were on their way to the mountains to hide. “During most of the time, we were in the border areas, we saw crowds of people coming along the roads in bullock carts with their few small belongings — it was a tragic, pathetic sight,” said, emphasizing the numbers of refugees still coming out of Cambodia. ° Little has been written about the new Khmer regime established in Cambodia since April, 1975 but the refugees with whom Pocock spoke gave some insight into the coun- try’s development. “We spoke to one woman in particular, who had come with a group which had followed the army out of Cambodia,’’ Pocock said. “She was a former teacher from Phnom Penh. She told us that women and men are segregated and are put in work camps where they usually work 10 to 12 hours a day with only a small ration of food. They were allowed to see their husbands only twice a year.”’ The accounts have clearly in- Pocock © NANCY POCOCK... visited Vietnamese border area. dicated that the Khmer regime aims at a regimented egalitarianism which has often been accompanied by harsh repression against former sup- porters of the old regime. That repression has been extended to the country’s many Buddhists, a fact borne out by Pocock’s in- terviews with Buddhist priests. Also seen in Cambodian policy — and particularly disturbing for future Indochinese development — is an attempt to expand borders since the clashes with Vietnam have been accompanied by border disputes with its two other neigh- - bors, Laos and Thailand. Pocock said that the Vietnamese feel that the Khmer Rouge is ac- ting at the behest of China which appears to be seeking to impede’ the socialist construction of Vietnam and diminish its growing prestige in Southeast Asia. She also noted that the only identifiable weapons which Ww found on captured Cambodi soldiers were of Chinese origi. But despite the continuilb provocation, Pocock stated, Vietnamese have stressed thel desire to negotiate a treaty and e further border hostilities. i “They made that very clear ¥ us,” she said, recounting one dicident which she and her t? campanions witnessed in which ‘ Vietnamese. village offici# pleaded with his fellow village not to blame the Cambodian peo} : for the actions of the Cambodia? government. On her way back to her home # Toronto at the time of the 7) terview, Pocock will again of spending her time organizing # for Vietnam, the work whi brought her to Vietnam for the fi® time five years ago. Althoud! Vietnam has, with assistance ff on the socialist countries and so” others — the U.S. has promised but has yet to give it — to allev!# ‘ food shortages, critical shorta8 still remain in medicines and oth ; hospital supplies. é The Canadian Friends Servic® together with such groups as Paris-based Fraternite vietna” and Canadian Aid for Vietn@ Civilians, based in Vancouver, ¢ 4 ‘directing their attentions at fill? the more pressing needs. And once back in Toronto, Nan) Pocock will be launching a 2@, campaign — this time to ral money for 1,000 blanké desperately needed by Vietnam hospitals. aii —Sean Griff?