The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, Inc.    

Phnom Penh Post [Free Online Edition], April 14 - 27, 2000

Please explain before you die
Phnom Penh Post reporter Bou Saroeun writes an open letter to the
surviving leadership of the Khmer Rouge

DEAR Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary: The people harmed by your
rule between 1975 and 1979 need to know why you behaved as you did
during your years in power.

Their anger will only be lessened if you honestly reveal the mysteries
of the DK regime.

I was 11 years old when you came to power and I still remember the day
well. My grandmother had brought me to Phnom Penh as a treat for Khmer
New Year. I had wanted to see Cambodia's capital despite my parents
telling me there was fighting in the area.

But when we arrived we found the fighting was worse than expected. My
grandparents stocked up on food and medicine and packed clothes in case
we needed to make a quick escape.

I soon wanted to go back to my village but we could not travel. My
grandfather dug a bunker behind the house and we hid in it on the
morning of April 17.

Later I was allowed to watch the young KR fighters enter the city; they
carried B-40 rocket launchers and AK-47s. People hung white flags from
their windows and even a helicopter flying across the city had a white
flag.

On April 18 my holiday ended. Everyone in the city was forced to leave.
As we walked from Phnom Penh I could smell the dead bodies and charred
flesh. Some time in May I arrived at my home village and returned to
school but the subjects had changed. There were now lessons on political
thought.

I remember the teacher snatching a pair of ear-rings from my Aunt, who
was in my class, and throwing them out the window saying: "Our Angkar
hates capitalism."

I was not in school for long. The KR started fighting against Vietnamese
so I was in the midst of a war again.

A KR commander, who had no ears, and was carrying a pistol and an AK-
47, passed through our village and asked me to join his troops saying
"It's fun" so I went with them.

A few hours later a group of Vietnamese soldiers appeared and a
fire-fight broke out.

I was very scared and started crying but a KR soldier shut my mouth and
put my head in the ground. I was lucky: the KR won the encounter and I
was not hurt.

After that the fighting near my village became more intense so the KR
evacuated us. We left on foot and as we traveled through the countryside
we saw many children dead from disease and starvation. There were dead
bodies everywhere - lying on the ground, floating in the water, and in
numerous stinking, shallow graves.

Once we were passing a canal and my parents asked me go and get some
water. I was pleased: the water was clear and I drank deeply and washed
myself. Just as I finished I looked up and saw three bodies, tied hand
and foot, floating in the water.

All the parents tried to find food for their children and went without
so we could eat. We children were always crying for food, not realizing
how difficult it was for them to find anything to eat. I remember
watching them cry and their exhaustion from lack of food. Our parents
became beggars as we traveled but locals often refused to help, calling
us Kbal Yuon Kloun Khmer (Vietnamese head, Khmer body).

After the evacuation I was separated from my parents. I was sent to a
Kong Koma (youth group) where I was tied up and beaten.

If you don't know what your regime did to Cambodia's children, let me
tell you.

I was accused of stealing a coconut. I had picked it up off the ground
and was giving it to an elderly man who was ill. For this I was stripped
and tied to a tree branch on an ant's nest in the sun.

I cried for help but no-one dared to help me. They released me after the
sun set. I could not eat porridge and I had contracted a serious and
painful fever. The next day they forced me to go to the rice field to
help the adults to transplant rice. I could not walk and I fell asleep
on the dike but I was kicked into the water by the head of the youth
group. You can imagine how I felt. I remember one tearful woman who trie
d to help me but she was so scared.

My friend was treated more harshly. He was permanently crippled after
the head of the youth group placed a stick across his waist and then had
people jump on it.

We were hungry, we needed food to fill our stomachs. So we were forced
to steal bananas, mangoes and anything else that was edible. We didn't
know the meaning of "thief", we just took the food for survival. Do you
know how hungry we were, Mr Ieng Sary and Mr Khieu Samphan and Mr Noun
Chea? Do you know how it feels to be so hungry that you'll pick out and
eat undigested corn from human feces? The children of 1975 Cambodia all
know what that hunger is like.

Why did we have to live like this? Who are the top leaders? Who is the
mysterious "Angkar" responsible for this, we asked ourselves.

Two sentences that I will remember forever, are Touk Min Chom Nenh Dork
Chenh kor Min Kat (Keeping you is no benefit, losing you is no loss) and
Sam At Kmang (Cleanse the enemy). In my mind the KR used these words to
kill the people.

We were children. Did you think that we were the enemy, or the CIA?

Are you responsible for violence and brutality which happened to the
children?

To keep this knowledge in your head must be hard to endure in your
heart. You should speak out before you die.
If you die without explaining why you behaved in this way there will
still be a mystery and no resolution for your victims. Khmers will still
mistrust Khmers.

Now we have already lost two key men - Pol Pot and Son Sen.

You must think of the generations that come after you. Your own progeny
will be condemned for your actions if you do not explain why you did
what you did.

Mr Khieu Samphan, I heard that you are a good man, not corrupt and an
intellectual, so you must stand up and tell us why more than one million
Khmers died.

I shed a tear when I hear the foreigners comment that Khmers like
killing Khmers.

I recently attended a seminar overseas and when I introduced myself as a
Cambodian the first reaction was invariably "Oh, Pol Pot". People kept
asking me again and again about Pol Pot and why did Khmers kill their
own people.

In the public forums recently held on the Khmer Rouge trial and national
reconciliation there has been a call for justice and truth.

You can help these people.

Mr Khieu Samphan and Mr Nuon Chea, you said "Sorry" at the press
conference after you defected. It is not enough. What you did to the
people must be explained more fully. We need to know why you killed your
own people, people who spoke the same language and were from the same
nation.

Mr Khieu Samphan, one of your former student colleagues said that you
were the tool of the powerful and you were used because you were popular
with the people. If this is so I hope you will tell us who these people
were and what they ordered you to do.

I also beg of the United Nations that you provide good security for any
trial so that he can stand up in confidence before the court and answer
why these people died.

Please, please tell us what happened and why so many people died before
you pass away.

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