Khmer Rouge families end jungle ordeal

FOUR Khmer Rouge families have emerged from remote Cambodian jungles 25 years after fleeing the Vietnamese invasion which toppled the Pol Pot regime.

The group which expanded from 12 to 34 during their years in the northeastern jungles had avoided any human contact in the belief they would be killed if Vietnamese troops found them.

"When they saw a human footprint, they moved further into the jungle," Yoeung Balong, police chief of Ratanakiri province, said.

Vietnamese troops, which invaded Cambodia in December 1979, left in September 1989, with remnants of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge still battling the Hanoi-installed government in Phnom Penh.

As they moved, they crossed the border into Laos and eventually came across people in remote areas from whom they stole food, Ratanakiri police said.

The Lao called the police, who arrived in a truck and made a search but found nothing. The Khmer saw the tracks of the truck, however, and decided to emerge from the jungle.

The group the youngest of whom is five months old is being looked after by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.