Dear Sir

A fter having read Nate Thayer's reports for several years now, I

suppose I should not have been as surprised and outraged as I was on reading his

latest pieces "Army blank check undermines budget" printed as the lead story in

the Post dated March 11-24.

The notion that the fight against the Khmer

Rouge would undermine Cambodia's budget and jeopardize aid is breathtaking. May

we ask what humanitarian projects the budget and aid would be devoted to if the

Khmer Rouge were able to regain power in Cambodia?

Thayer goes on to

blame the victim for the "failure by the government to win new international

military assistance". Why not speak of the failure of the international

community to support the new government of Cambodia? Why not criticize the Thai

government for its continuing sanctuaries and trade with the KR, and China and

the Western powers for supplying the arms that are today being employed by the

KR? Thayer's own companion story shows a German anti-tank missile supplied

through Singapore in 1989 being used against government troops.

The same

accusation is put by "KR Ambassador" In Sopheap in an interview by Thayer

published on the following page: "There is no money to increase the salary of

teachers, they say themselves that 20 percent of the people have no housing, but

they spend money on fighting". This must taken some gall to report

straight-faced considering the KR's record on education and housing, leaving

aside civil servants' salaries!

- Helen Jarvis, Sydney, Australia