Khuonh Khuon

VPA-BM0004

Khuonh Khuon

Male

Khmer

Khmer

Ta Lei, Kok Ro Miet, Thma Puok, Banteay Meanchey

Farmer

In 1977, the Khmer Rouge evacuated people out of Leu Village, Pel Biet Commune, Thma Puo District. In Thma Puok cooperative, people ate collectively and received one ladle of rice soup. My parents were forced to work without relief, transplanting rice seedlings.

In June 1978, my family was selected from sixty families of new people to be transported by cart to Thma Puok cooperative. At dusk, they counted the number of people in each family, to determine whether all members of every family were present. As a result, they found out that two people – my father and our neighbor – were missing. Shortly afterward, they ordered their security police to take my father and other uncle (neighbor) to plow the paddy fields in Kumro Village, Kumro Commune, one kilometer from Thma Puok.

During that time, my father did not visit us because he had swollen disease. Only the neighbor was able to visit. When he arrived, my mother asked him about my father. He said that my father could not come because his legs were swollen. A short while later, I heard him tell my mother to look after the children as he was preparing to leave. Then he escaped. But the Khmer Rouge chased him immediately. [I] did not know what happened after that.

Then they started loading people onto the carts and heading for the high school. They guarded people along the way all the time. When all the carts were about to leave, they shouted that two more carts were needed for two additional families. Then one woman said they could not leave, because her husband had not yet arrived. They allowed the mother and aunt to stay there.

An hour later, when they drove the cart back. I clearly saw that they came to wash the blood off their bodies, sticks, Srange sticks, [a kind of tree], swords, snor chakk trei [ a kind of fishing tool], and axes. “Take two other families, but no need to take the mother,� they shouted. “Go to sleep at the dining hall,� Cheat shouted.

The following morning, we returned home and dared not talk to one another. From that moment on, they decreased our ration until my two sisters died from starvation. I cut Antriengkhet, [a kind of tree] to make fertilizer. I do not recall their names; I was only eight years old (I recall my father’s name.)

Additional information collected on March 25, 2009:

Lost relatives executed by the Khmer Rouge:

In the rainy season of 1978, the Khmer Rouge executed my aunt, Nguon, at Thma Puok High School in Kumrou Village, Kumrou Commune, Tma Puok District, Banteay Meanchey Province. Village security police (unknown names) ordered [my aunt] to do dry farming at Krom, but [I] do not know exactly where. I was not fully aware of the incident, but I knew that my aunt had stolen Angkar’s property because she did not have enough food to eat. The chief of Kumrou cooperative was Kok (male). During that time, the Khmer Rouge evacuated my aunt from Taly Village, Kok Rormiet Commune, Thma Puok District, Banteay Meanchey Province to serve in a mobile work brigade located in Kumrou Village, Kumrou Commune, Thma Puok District, Banteay Meanchey Province

Complainant

No;

dam and road

No;

20080203

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