Meng Aun

VPA-KD0039

Meng Aun

Female

Khmer

Khmer

Preah Theat Village, Roluos Commune, Kandal Stung District, Kandal

19510806

Farmer

Krapeu Trom Village, Roluos Commune, Kandal Stung District, Kandal Province

1977

Sang prison

My name is Meng Aun, and I am currently living in Krapeu Trom Village, Roluos Commune, Kandal Stung District, Kandal Province. During the Khmer Rouge regime, I suffered seriously as a detainee in Sang Prison; in addition, my husband was arrested and has never been seen since.

Detention in Sang prison:

In 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took control of the country, they subjected the entire populace to forced labor and provided very little food to eat. At that time, I was assigned to work in a women’s unit which consisted of 30 members. The unit chief was named Oeu. In 1976, two KR militiamen named Rum and Khun came to arrest my husband by telling him that they needed workers to clear the jungle in order to grow corn. My husband had been a soldier in the Lon Nol regime. At the end of 1977, Chhil, our group’s leader, ordered the other villagers and me to harvest the crops at Bakou Commune. Once we arrived at Bakou, we were told to stay in a particular house and once inside, the militiamen began to tie our hands behind our backs. They used a long rope in order to make sure that we were in a straight line. We were told that if the rope was cut, we would be executed. I didn’t know the militiamen because they were from a different commune than mine. There were forty of us when we left the village, but when we arrived at Bakou Commune, we discovered that there were more people being kept there. Later, all of us were transferred to Sang Security Office.

Once we arrived at Sang, we were put in a house containing more than 500 people. There, they ordered us to work in the rice fields. We were given only a small ration of watery gruel. Ten days after my arrival, Nang called me in order to get my personal background. I was warned to answer his questions or I would be beaten. Nang asked me, “Comrade! Do you wish to overthrow our revolutionary organization?� I answered “No!�, but he didn’t believe me and tied me up even tighter. Nang accused me of being a KGB spy. He continued by asking, “Have you ever trained to be a commando?� Fearful of being battered, this time I replied, “Yes!� and he didn’t beat me. Once I had fallen down from my house, sustaining an injury to my left arm which left a scar. I told them that the scar had resulted from a gunshot. I then stripped off my shirt to show them the scar. After seeing [the scar], they believed what I was telling them and released me. But prior to releasing me, they wanted me to denounce other people. They used political manipulation by saying, “Comrade! You should consider this; as others are happily staying at home with their family, you are pitifully stuck here in the mud. You should denounce the others who are involved in the KGB network.� They also said that some other villagers and I had secretly planned to escape because our commune didn’t have enough food to eat. I therefore forced myself to denounce three other people.

One day when Angkar distributed a ration of porridge, I surreptitiously put water into the bowl. The water was near the porridge pot, which was around five meters away, but Ret, a KR soldier, hit me on my head with a stick, causing my head to become swollen. In Sang Security Office, they tortured us by beating us with a stick. After returning from work, as we entered the cell, they started beating all the prisoners with a stick. Some prisoners died of exhaustion. I still remember a few inmates’ names, in particular Pheap and Kol, who lived in the same village. Two months before the Vietnamese troops invaded the country, 100 other inmates and I were transferred and detained in Wat Ka-koh Security Office. Two months later, the Vietnamese troops liberated the country and I returned to my home village. When I arrived in my village, the military chief named Rum was still searching for me, but I managed to escape from him. Thus, I survived the regime.

Complainant

No;

Depend on the judges

No;

20081003

© DC-Cam