The largest group of opposition politicians who fled Cambodia after the fighting in July are due to return to Phnon Penh on Thursday. 12 MP's together with their support staff are expected to arrive in Cambodia with more officials returning later in the day under the supervision of the UN Refugee Agency. Their arrival coincides with the start of a four day visit to Cambodia by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson. Caroline Gluck reports from Phnon Penh:

The return of 12 members of parliament would leave only one MP, ousted co-Premier, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, remaining outside the country for political reasons. The MP's will be followed later in the day by nearly 60 officials from opposition politicians, Sam Rainsy's Khmer Nation Party and the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party, under the auspices of the United Nations Refugee Agency.

More officials are due to arrive on Friday. It's no coincidence that the political returnees have chosen to come back at the same time as Mary Robinson begins her visit to Cambodia.

Symbolically it offers the politicians further guarantees for their protection. A spokesman for the Union of Cambodian Democratics in Bangkok, a loose coalition supporting Prince Ranariddh, said the MP's wanted to return to begin preparing for the forthcoming elections.

The MP's will be pressing for fair access to the media, which is largely controlled by co-Premier Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party and amendments to make the membership of the body which will supervise the polls more independent. The spokesman said they also wanted to see progress in investigating serious human rights abuses, including a grenade attack on an opposition rally in March and the extra judicial killings of more than 45 supporters of Prince Ranariddh, following the fighting in July.