Svay Boeun

VPA-KR0006

Svay Boeun

Male

Khmer

Mil

Chag Hap village, Kbal Damrei commune, Sambo district, Kratie province

1950201

Farmer

Chang Hap village, Kbal Damrei commune, Sambo district, Kratie province

1975-1978

Chang Hap village, Kbal Damrei commune, Sambo disrict, Kratie province

In 1975, Khin, a security policeman, captured and took my father-in-law, Kauv Tauch, to Sambo District. Then my family was relocated to a construction site at Sre Chrai village and ordered to uproot trees from six a.m. to six p.m. in order to make land for farming. During the break from work, [we] ate rice soup cooked with the leaves of morning glory and Prech, [a kind of edible tree] leaves. We had only one meal per day. The construction site was a re-education site, where [we] had no freedom of speech at all.

My father-in-law, Kauv Tauch, was a civil servant (retired soldier), and my brother-in-law, Thy, was a monk in Snuol pagoda. They confronted the village chief of Chang Hap Village, named Long, about insufficient food and exhaustion. He ordered both of them to receive re-education for ten days. Half a month later, in Sambo District, Tauch and Thy disappeared, because they had been executed. A female unit chief named Yoeun (deceased) whispered [to me] that they both had been executed.

My family and I were assigned to make tile forges, five meters square. I made tile forges, but farming was a collective task. Working hours lasted from four a.m. to twelve p.m. and from one p.m. to nine p.m. Regarding rations, there was only watery rice soup and red corn.

Mil traditions, including fortunetelling, spirits, and superstitions, were eliminated. At night, when the buffalo broke the tethers and went to eat paddy rice, I was accused of being a hidden enemy. During a meeting held in 1976, a chief named Thaong stated that there were two hidden enemies (my family and I). However, because village people (Kraol and Mil) advocated for us and begged for mercy from [the Khmer Rouge], we were pardoned.

While living in the village, [I] worked from six a.m. to six p.m. The 17 April people who dared to confront [the Khmer Rouge] were captured and taken to a construction site at Phnom Sruoch dike (Sre Treng Village). Phnom Sruoch dike was a place where people were taken to be executed. Village people in every village of Kbal Damrei commune who were accused of being enemies against the party’s line were executed there.

A large number of Mil people in the village died because they had previously served as Khmer Rouge soldiers. Most Mil people who were from the working class survived, while those who rebelled were taken for re-education at the construction site or executed by being beaten to death with sticks, hoes, and axes.

In 1975, I was a unit chief, in charge of ten families of the solidarity group in the village. I served as a unit chief for half a month. At that time, there was no communal dining hall.

Witness

No;

Pagoda

No;

20071127

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