Khmer Rouge make the most of corruption: A leaked report has unearthed signs of Cambodia returning to its past, writes Terry McCarthy from Phnom Penh

IN THE 13th century, an envoy from China, Chou Ta Kuan, travelled to Cambodia and stayed in the glorious city of Angkor. He admired the huge temples, and the beauty of the countryside. But after four centuries of glory, the Cambodian empire was in decline, and Chou could not help observing the signs of arbitrary abuse of power and corruption that would lead to the disintegration and sacking of Angkor by the Thais.

The most bizarre was the collecting of human gall to offer to the King. At night unsuspecting victims would have a sack thrown over them, and a special short knife would then be used to cut out their gall bladder.

Seven hundred years on, another envoy has come and catalogued the danger signs of a country that is again milking the ordinary people to enrich a small caste of corrupt generals and cynical politicians. He is John Holloway, 52, a former Australian ambassador to Phnom Penh and one of Canberra's Asia experts. He took leave of absence to serve as adviser to the Cambodian government.

His 3,500-word diplomatic cable on the state of Cambodia to the Foreign Ministry in Canberra was not meant to be read by the Cambodians, so it pulled no punches. It was, however, leaked to the Australian press last week. Its most contentious statement concerns King Norodom Sihanouk, whom Mr Holloway said was 'still pathetically pursuing power although riddled with cancer'. He is being treated for cancer in Peking, and on Monday his office said: 'This behaviour is not worthy of a diplomat of his rank, especially as our King is already old and ill.'

Mr Holloway concentrates on corruption, which he claimed extends through the entire cabinet and includes the two co-Prime Ministers, Hun Sen and Prince Ranar iddh (Sihanouk's son).

More than half of Cambodia's GNP is accounted for by foreign aid, but with the cynical scramble for wealth in Phnom Penh, little or none of this reaches the poor in the countryside - who make up 80 per cent of the population. 'If the situation continues in which the government mandate is not felt in the countryside, the Khmer Rouge will fill the gap, and the events of the late 1960s and the early 1970s (when the Khmer Rouge peasant army took power from a corrupt US-supported regime) will be replicated,' Mr Holloway concluded.

He observed that the Khmer Rouge were spreading out from their strongholds along the Thai border to establish 'leopard spots' of support in the interior. Typically, villagers are turning to the guerrillas for protection against corrupt soldiers and illegal 'tax collection' from officials; in exchange, they give up some of their young men to serve in the Khmer Rouge army.

Mr Holloway also noted that an increasing number of students have begun expressing support for the Khmer Rouge because of their disaffection with the government. And while he acknowledged that the Khmer Rouge control only 10 per cent of the country's land and 6 per cent of its population today, he said some Cambodians saw history already beginning to repeat itself. So far, the government has made no official response to the cable.