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 expanded from 12 to 34 during its years in the jungle. They have avoided any human contact because they believed they would be killed if Vietnamese troops found them. "When they saw a human footprint, they moved further into the jungle," said Yoeung Balong, the police chief of Ratanakiri Province.

Vietnamese troops who invaded Cambodia in December 1979 left in September 1989, when there were still remnants of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge battling the government in Phnom Penh. The four Khmer Rouge families have lived off the land and replaced tattered rags with clothing made from bark and leaves in jungles teeming with poisonous snakes, leeches and malaria.

"They even took the rice from the crop of doves for seeds so they could survive," said human right activist Pen Bunna, who interviewed the group. As they moved, they crossed the border into Laos and eventually came across people in remote areas. They stole food from these people, the Ratanakiri police said.

Villagers called the police, who arrived in a truck and made a search but found nothing. However, the Khmer group saw the tracks of the truck and decided to emerge from the jungles. The group - the youngest of whom is five months old - is being looked after by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

ABC 2.12.2004

out of the jungle and right into the jail