The Cambodian people win.

Retired UN staffer Jery Kilker, who served as the World Health Organization Information Officer at UN Headquarters in New York from 1985 to 1992, Headed the UNTAC Information Centre in Phnom Penh from April to July 1993. During the Cambodian elections, he worked as a polling station officer and ballot counting supervisor. Mr. Kilker observed: "Everyone who served in Cambodia during the recent peace-building exercise has a different story to tell. This is my perspective."

Some of the many things that struck me about Cambodia were the underlying in beauty of the country and the people, and how much had been accomplished by the Khmer civilization over the centuries.

I was terribly impressed by how well all the non-Cambodian organizations and individuals got along and worked for the well-being of the country It was like being in the stereotypical, "Wild West", where persons with all kinds of skills came from many different directions to a place where new rules were being made: entrepreneurs were introducing goods and services, humanitarians were helping develop social services, civil servants were assisting in the establishment of government services, and law officers imported from the outside were seeking to establish order.

The many thousands of well-meaning "experts" came to Cambodia to share ideas, materials, and resources to replace those that had been taken away or destroyed during the previous 20 years.

Among the newcomers were a number of "returnees", Cambodions who settled in countries far away and who had come back home to impart new skills to their compatriots. One family, for instance, originally from Phnom Penh but which had resettled in Los Angeles, opened a small and popular restaurant called, not surprisingly, "California." The wife is teaching her relatives how to prepare and serve a different and marketable cuisine and to operate a small business. A son, beginning medical school, intends returning to his homeland and helping deliver much-needed health services.

The most eager to help with the "revelopment" of the new Cambodia are the considerably larger number of Cambodians who experienced 20 years of extreme cruelty and deprivation in the country or who grew up in refugee camps just outside. The eagerness is there, perhaps out of a profound buoyancy for the future or in the realization that there is no reasonable alternative.

The balloting started on Sunday, 23 May 1993, at the beginning of the May-to-October south-western monsoon season with its strong winds, high humidity, and heavy rains. There were hopes among the election planners that the voting would take place during the good weather just before the monsoon. Those responsible for security prayed for fair weather, then heavy rains to bog down any military objections to the results. in fact, the first heavy rain came down the very night before the polls opened and continued throughout the first polling morning. The deluge slowed down the delivery of ballot papers and boxes and the Kday Chas station in Kandal province, where I was posted, was an hour late in opening.

At daybreak, Cambodian women were impatiently waiting in the rain for their chance to vote. For cultural reasons, the women voted first, then the men, who had been standing to one side, then the Abbot from the temple from across the road, followed by the other monks, then the soldiers who were in uniform but without weapons. Throughout this one morning, about 75 per cent of those who would vote during the entire three-day period waited eagerly in a festive mood for their chance to vote.

Other sites were less peaceful: staff were given bullet-proof vests and military helmets and some locations were shelled.

Later, during the province-by-province ballot counting, we found expressions of appreciation and hope written on some of the ballot papers. (And, while they did not appear in the final tally, the "United Nations" also received some votes.)

At a time when the United Nations is searching for durable formulas for domestic peace, the Cambodian example is a tempting but still incomplete success. The people have spoken and politicians of many hues have responded. However, Cambodia is still a fragile flower of the Orient and will require continued nurturing.

The UN cannot fill all the interstices of a society's development. Along with the Cambodian people and their new Government, the energy and creativity of non-governmental organizations and entrepreneurs will be required to build together a new and peaceful Cambodia.