Soeun Chheang

VPA-KT0079

Soeun Chheang

Male

Khmer

Khmer

Krasaing Ka Village, San Kor Commune, Kampong Svay District, Kampong Thom Province

19690305

Farmer

Krasaing Ka village, San Kor Commune, Kampong Svay District, Kampong Thom province, Cambodia

1978

Krasaing Ka village, San Kor Commune, (Economic section of Kampong Svay), Kampong Svay District, Kampong Thom Province

Starvation:

In 1978, my mother, who worked in the economic unit of Krasaing Kha Village, was starved because she got sick with diarrhea and was therefore unable to work. Because she could not work, she was not entitled to her food ration. If my mother and I could not work, we would receive no food. Workers in the mobile unit were oppressed, and therefore those who could not go to work because they were sick, regardless of the reason, were starved.

When my mother had nothing to eat, I shared my ration – a cup of rice soup which contained only a spoonful rice – with her. My father, who worked as a blacksmith, shared his rice soup and potatoes with my mother. I knew that Sum, our neighbor who later became a mobile unit chief, criticized my mother for being unable to work. Yeay Sum told the dining hall chief (whose name I do not know) not to give my mother her ration because my mother was lazy, not sick.

My sister, Soeun Cheang, died from starvation in late 1978. She died in Krasaing Village, Sann Kor Commune. I do not know who starved her, but everyone was suffering from starvation. After her death, my brother, Soeun Chea, my parents and I escaped to Chamkar Leu Commune. My father still worked in the craft unit; my mother husked rice; my brother worked in the mobile unit; and I pulled sheaves of rice. Four of us were given a cup of rice soup to eat a day for twenty days because unlike other people, we were emaciated .

At Kampong Bay cooperative, our family was given adequate food to eat for two days, and then we received the normal amount of food. Yeay Sum, who was my mother’s mobile unit chief, criticized my mother very often. I want the court to prosecute the Khmer Rouge leaders so that they cannot commit the same crimes again.

Complainant

No;

Road

No;

20080324

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