1.
SV Troops along road
0.03

2.
SV Refugees on road past troops (3 shots)
0.24

3.
SV Soldiers through burned out village (3 shots)
0.35

4.
SV Soldier running through paddy; crawling and firing (8 shots)
0.56

5.
SV Soldier helping wounded journalist (3 shots)
1.15

6.
SVs Troops in bunker (2 shots)
1.17

7.
SV Wounded soldier being helped away
1.20

8.
SCU ZOOM IN CU Soldier wearing Buddha charm
1.26

9.
SV & CU Reinforcements, including woman and young boys
1.38



Initials ESP/0036 ESP/0058



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The war in the Khmer Republic has suddenly become hotter .... with attacks by Communist forces being reported from many areas around the capital Phnom Penh.

In some respects it appears to be a "rice" was and according to some reports, just about all of the vast rice growing area south of Phnom Penh is in Communist hands.

One village which is being fought for is Tram Khnar (pronounced Trum k-nah), about 28 air miles south of the capital. Visnews South-East Asia correspondent Neil Davis was slightly wounded by a rocked while covering the fighting. A Khmer journalist with him was wounded later listed as missing, presumed dead.

Davis says the situation in the Khmer Republic is the worst since the country became fully involved in the war in March, 1970, with Phnom Penh now really threatened by the Communists.

SYNOPSIS: The Vietnam peace talks may have resumed in Paris, but at the same time, fighting has intensified in another part of Indochina, the khmer Republic. In some ways it's a rice war... a battle for paddy fields ready for harvesting. Already, most of the ricelands south of Phnom Penh are under Communist control.

This film shows the battle for one particular rice town, Tram Khnar, twenty-eight air miles south of the khmer capital.

The battle has been raging for days through the town and in the ripe paddy around it, with the advantage swinging from one side to the other Government troops had to call in reinforcements.

Here a government soldier is trying to help a wounded Khmer journalist. Shortly afterwards, the man had to be abandoned as the Communists counter-attacked. He was listed as missing presumed dead. The VISNEWS correspondent was slightly wounded while filming those scenes.

The correspondent, Neil Davis, says the situation in the Khmer Republic is the worst since the country became involved in the war early in nineteen-seventy. He says the capital, Phnom Penh, is now really threatened by the Communists.