1.
SV recruits firing rifles
0.19

2.
CU bugler
0.24

3.
MV instructor.
0.28

4.
GV recruits forward on rifle range
0.35

5.
SV & MV instructor discusses marksmanship
0.48

6.
CU PAN recruits
0.59

7.
GV recruits training in field
1.10

8.
GV ditto
1.15

9.
GV troops through water towards camera
1.21

10.
GV training in field
1.28



Initials OJP/N-TELE/JF/PS OJP/N-TELE/PS



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Near Romeas, the centre for army training in Cambodia, young recruits.....many straight from High School.....are being instructed in the use of rifles.

The Cambodian Army has in the past pursued a recruit training programme spread over nine months, but with the current urgent need for more combat troops Cambodian military authorities have felt compelled to reduce the training period to only ninety days.

The rifles being used by recruits are far from recent models having been inherited from the French. Many of the training techniques are also thought to be French.

The military instructors are very critical of their pupils, but even when techniques are mastered, the recruit has to adapt to different combat weapons after graduation.

Observers have noted that the basic training taught here employs tactics of conventional warfare rather than those more likely to succeed against Cambodia's enemies. Nevertheless, the boys...mostly volunteers who joined the army before the real fighting began....do not seem perturbed that they could well be moved into action before their training is completed.