Sep Ron

VPA-KP0161

Sep Ron

Male

53

Khmer

Khmer

Ta Phul village, Snay Anh Chit commune, Chumkiri district, Kampot province

Farmer

Ta Phul village, Snay Anh Chit commune, Chumkiri district, Kampot province

1976

Phnom Penh

Forced labor

After I served as a commune militiaman, in 1976, Nauv Nan, a chief of commune militiamen, enlisted me in the army. However, I defected. Later on, I worked in a mobile work brigade at Stung Phe and Koh Sla. Ta Suon, a commune chief (deceased), took charge of the mobile work brigade. I think that they sent me to work in the mobile work brigade because my relatives were 17th of April people.
In 1976, Eun, who now lives in this village, Ou (deceased), and I carried dirt at Stung Phe. After breakfast, we worked from seven a.m. to eleven a.m., which was a lunch break where we received rice or rice soup. After [having lunch], we worked from one p.m. to five p.m. Then after having dinner, we carried dirt until nine p.m. We worked extremely hard, and our rations were better than those of the 17th of April people. But there was no doubt, that there was not enough for us to eat.
And those who felt ill had to keep working, because they were afraid of being taken for “re-education.� I do not know who the chief of the Stung Phe mobile work brigade was. In 1978, a unit chief named Ta Kan (deceased) forced me to work in the mobile work brigade.

At Koh Sla, I and others, whose names I mentioned above, needed to work extremely hard, just like when we worked at Stung Phe. Moreover, we still received only a tiny amount of food. Besides working in the mobile work brigade, we transplanted rice seedlings at various villages such, as Tra Chaeng and Sva Thlakk village. I do not know why they put us to work extremely hard, and gave us such a small amount of food to eat.

In 1983, I had intended to participate in petitioning the Khmer Rouge. And today, I am happy to file the application form. I want to see the Khmer Rouge leaders put on trail soon.

The disappearance of Phuong San, my uncle

In 1979, after being informed by a person who used to work with him, Phuong Sim, my uncle (deceased), told me that Phuong San, his brother, had been arrested. At the time, he did not tell me why his brother was arrested, who came to arrest him, who ordered the arrest, who was responsible for the incident, and where his brother was taken to. Uncle Phuong San, only learned of the incident from another person, and later reported the incident to me. On the liberation day of Phnom Penh city, uncle Phuong San served as a [Pol Pot]soldier at Phnom Penh.

I think the Khmer Rouge arrested my uncle Phuong San, because they accused him of being a Vietnamese agent. His arrest took place at Phnom Penh in 1976. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, Phuong Sim, my uncle, told me that he had gone to Phnom Penh, visited Tuol Sleng, and found the name, Phuong San, written down on the wall. We think that he died at Tuol Sleng. I do not know who is responsible for his death.

Complainant

No;

Mental Hospital

Yes;

20081029

© DC-Cam