Noch Kem

VPA-KT0060

Noch Kem

Female

68

Khmer

Khmer

Sann Kor, Kampong Svay, Kampong Thom,

Farmer

Sleng Khpuos village, Sann Kor commune, Kampong Svay district, Kampong Thom province, Cambodia

1977

Svay Teap commune, Chamak Leu district, Kampong Cham province

Execution:

In the rainy season of an unknown year, a cooperative chief (name unknown) put me to work cooking for about ten security guards at cashew farm, the primary execution site in Chamkar Leu District. There were three cooks working at the cashew farm, but I do not recall the other two. On three occasions, I was cooking when executions took place. The distance between where I cooked and the site of execution was about a hundred meters. I witnessed every killing which took place from seven a.m. to five or six p.m. I cooked for comrades who killed thousands of people. While they were killing people, they played the loudspeaker. However, I could still hear the screaming of the victims. The comrades used a metal iron taken from the oxcart to beat the nape of the victims, causing them to fall down into the grave. Among those comrades, I can still remember one called Phon, (who recently committed suicide by swallowing medicine.)

I knew that every ten days people were selected and taken to be killed at the cashew farm. The victims were accused of being the enemy of Angkar, malingering, being confrontational with the Khmer Rouge cadres, or being intellectuals. In every mass grave, I noticed that there were dead bodies which swelled up, rotted, and smelled terribly. The comrades shared with each other the number of people to be killed. Each grave could hold hundreds of victims. I recall that each mass grave was four meters in depth, four meters in width, and ten meters in length. I witnessed the killing of children. Children were thrown against the mango trees and put into the grave. People selected, taken to, and executed at the cashew farm were people who lived in various villages of Chamkar Leu District. Hundreds of children were killed by being thrown against the mango trees and stabbed with a bayonet.

I witnessed the incidents with my own eyes. I was not allowed to go and see the killing at the graves because I was busy cooking for the comrades whose job was to kill people.

After working as a cook, I returned to do farming and work in the village dining hall. I am not certain about the exact year when the killing took place. But I do remember that the killings took place in the year when Vietnamese troops were about to liberate the country. That was the year in which the largest number of people were executed at the cashew farm.

I knew that executions took place at the cashew farm based on orders given from the upper level Khmer Rouge. That was why people were selected from all the surrounding villages and taken to be killed. I was called upon to cook there three times when the next selection of people was made . I do not recall the name of the cashew farm chief. But I know that Yun took charge of Chamkar Leu. Later, Yun was arrested and disappeared.

Forced labor:

After April 17, 1975, I was deported from Kampong Thom Province to Chamkar Leu in Kampong Cham Province. There I lived in Sre Preal Village, Svay Reap Commune, Chamkar Leu District, with three or four other families who had been deported from Kbel village and Stung. My tasks consisted of carrying earth, farming, and transplanting rice seedlings. I was put to work day and night. Carrying out orders from Ben, the unit chief, I transplanted one sleuk (five hundred rice seedlings) per day. If we could not finish the assigned task, Ben would tell the dining hall chief not to give us our ration. We were given our ration only when we finished the assigned task. I always finished the assigned task. People who did not finish the assigned task suffered from starvation. I do not recall those who did not finish the assigned task.

Complainant

Yes;

Hospital

Yes;

20080325

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