Suon Thang

VPA-KT0049

Suon Thang

Male

Khmer

Khmer

Sankor, Kampong Thom

1937

Farmer

Tbel village, Sankor commune, Kampong Svay district, Kampong Thom province

1975

Tbel, Sankor, Kampong Svay, Kampong Thom

Forced labor

After the Khmer Rouge took complete control throughout Cambodia in 1975, they first assigned me to work as a palm tree climber, climbing thirty palm trees per day. Chork, a commune chief, ordered me to climb palm trees in Tbil village, Sanka commune, Kampong Svay district, Kampong Thom province. After a year of climbing palm trees, I was ordered to tend forty cattle, which I did for a year. Then Chork transferred me to build the Sauky dam, located in Prey Damrei commune, Stung district.

While working there, I was assigned to carry four cubic meters of soil per day. If we did not finish the assigned task on time, we were not allowed to eat. They would then force us to complete the assigned task. After I had worked at the Sauphy dam for fifteen days, Chork summoned me to plow paddy fields in Nipech village, Nipech commune, Kampong Svay district, Kampong Thom province. They assigned me to use five plows to plow one hectare of rice field per morning.

I then took a rest and went to tend the buffaloes until three pm. After the buffaloes, I plowed the paddy fields again until four p.m., at which point I was allowed to rest. Later on, Chork sent me to transplant rice seedlings. In summary, most of my assigned tasks were mobile, though it depended on the commune chief who ordered the work.

Religious destruction

In 1975, after coming to power and taking control of the Lon Nol regime, the Khmer Rouge used one policy: collecting every person’s property and making it collective. I do not know why they collected all of the private property and used it collectively. At the time, Chet, a combatant chief, brought his force to collect my property (including six cows, a cart, plates, pots, and other household goods) and store my things in the dining hall located in Tbil village, Sanka commune, Kampong Svay district, Kampong Thom province.

In addition to my property, they also collected other people’s property. In the same year, Khmer Rouge forces pulled down the Daung pagoda, located in Daung village, Daung commune. They destroyed the pagoda, Kuts (a dwelling place where monks lived), collected Buddha statues, and put the statues in the canal. I was clueless as to why they destroyed the pagoda.

Starvation

From the time that the Khmer Rouge started to collect property, use it collectively, and create a collective system of eating, I never had enough food to eat. There was only one pot of gruel mixed with banana trees. For more than three years, I did not taste the flavor of rice. Only when working at the Sauphy dam did I eat one plate of rice with soup. Though I became extremely exhausted, I had to struggle to perform the heavy tasks in order to survive.

Complainant

No;

Psychiatric hospital

No;

20080325

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