Kay Leam

VPA-KT0018

Kay Leam

Female

Khmer

Khmer

Vollyeav village, Damreislap commune, Kampong Svay district, Kampong Thom province

19600708

Farmer

Vollyeav village, Damreislap commune, Kampong Svay district, Kampong Thom province

Vollyeav village, Damreislap commune, Kampong Svay district, Kampong Thom province

Forced labor

In the rainy season of 1975, Uch, a cooperative chief of Voryav village, forced me to work in the Snay Dei construction site. Though I of course did not want to work there, I had no choice but to accept the assignment. When I arrived at the Snay Dei construction site, Ta Sok, a village mobile work brigade chief who came from Takeo province, assigned me to perform several tasks, such as digging soil, cutting down forests during the rainy season, and carrying soil at the construction site. In terms of the assigned tasks, people were divided into groups of three and each person carried one cubic meter of earth per day. As I was unable to carry one cubic meter of earth per day, Siev, a unit chief, said, “If [you] cannot finish carrying one cubic meter of earth, one more cubic meter of earth will be added to your assigned task. If [you] cannot not do that, [you] will be taken to the detention center in Snay Dei village.�

Unable to complete Siev’s assigned task, I was ordered to cut down trees in the forest as part of my detention. While I was cutting down trees in the forest, two unknown security police guarded me. Cutting down trees in the forest of Snay Dei village was task that had to be completed urgently. For three days, Ly and I worked on the assigned task in an area fifty meters in length and twenty meters in width. After cutting down the forest, I was transferred back to carrying the earth. Among the many construction sites within the 30 September dam, I was assigned to construction site number two, where I worked for two years. While building the dam, I worked from five a.m. to twelve p.m. After eating rice soup, [I] worked from one p.m. to six p.m. Then [we] ate rice soup again.

Starvation

Under the Khmer Rouge regime, I was starved in Krasaing village for two days when I contracted malaria. I do not know who starved me. Being sick, I could not walk to receive my rations. I asked my sister, Hun, to help bring me my rations. Female comrade Phon, unit chief of the mobile work brigade, refused to give Hun my rations because I had not worked that day. Later on, Ta Yeam, a prominent chief of the mobile work brigade, sent me back to the village. I received treatment in Voryav village for three months. As a patient sent to the village by the mobile work brigade, I could only receive half the amount (a half spoon) of rations that normal workers received.

I had nothing to eat when they did not give me rations. The rations were not enough for us because they only contained watery rice and soup cooked by mixing potato leaves and a few small Changva fish, [kind of edible fish.] We had two meals per day: in the afternoon and evening. When I was farming in Boeng Lies, south of Kampong Thom, there was a lack of food. I had nothing to eat except snails cooked with watery rice soup.

Stealing potatoes

While working in Voryav village under the Khmer Rouge regime, Lenh, who lived in a village nearby, and I stole potatoes. Des, a village security police, saw Lenh and I cooking and eating the potatoes. Des then told Te, a cooperative chief, about the incident. Te called us and asked, “Did you steal the potatoes?� I said, “I was starving. That’s why I stole, cooked, and ate the potatoes.� Te then said, “Stop doing that! Next time, if you do this again, I will kill you. Go back now. But next time, if we see you do that again, we will punish you.� Te only reeducated me to behave as well as others did.

Complainant

No;

Hospital

No;

20080327

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