Searching for the truth Issues 21 - Documentation Center of Cambodia

Searching for the truth ⎯ Family Tracing
chief of the unit who had informed him was a former
prisoner assigned to keep a lookout on the activities
of other prisoners and report on them to the security
chief. We did not know where this lookout worked in
the daytime, but he returned to sleep inside the cell
with other prisoners at night. When the meeting
ended, the security chief ordered the guards to tie five
prisoners’ hands behind their backs until their elbows
almost touched. They were all blindfolded. Then they
were led to the north behind the prison, while the
remaining prisoners were allowed to go back to their
cells. The security chief closed the door and warned,
‘If anyone causes chaos upon hearing gunshots, they
will be killed.’ A moment later I heard him counting:
‘One! Two! Three!’ followed by the sound of several
gunshots.” Nevertheless, Sam Ol added that he did
not hear the cry of the prisoners, but “when I looked
Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)
Number 21, September 2001
to the front, I could recognize some clothes
belonging to the prisoners hung on the fence.”
What he saw was three prisoners being
executed using the sharp edge of a palm tree branch.
It was “carried out before our very eyes three months
after I first arrived. A group of Khmer Rouge soldiers
brought these prisoners from Prek Rey to Prek
Kralanh prison to be slaughtered for attempted
escape.” Sam Ol said, “Punishing prisoners for
breaking rules was a way to warn others against
repeating the same crime.”
He stated: “I’ll never forget the punishment
imposed on me by the Khmer Rouge. I wonder how
these people, who spoke the same language as us,
could kill their own race? During each Phchum
season, I’ve always thought about what happened 25
years ago in which ‘I shed tears in prison.’”
DISCOVERY RAISES QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCHER
When I was young,
my mother told me how
her uncle Chen Seng was
taken by the Khmer Rouge
to be killed because he
was a lieutenant colonel in
the Army of the Khmer
Republic. Chen Srei Touch,
Keo Kanitha Kim
Chen Seng’s daughter,
recalled that Chen Seng
was a brave solder. She had lived with him until he
was tricked into going to an “educational session.”
Despite his age, Chen Seng became a
commander in charge of military training in Takeo
province. When the Khmer Rogue attacked Phnom
Penh in 1975, Chen Seng was ordered to defend the
city. He decided to leave his son Chen Sydin alone in
Takeo province, since Sydin was busy with his
studies and was needed to take care of the household.
Unfortunately, on April 16, 1975, my great
Keo Kanitha Kim
uncle and his family were ordered to leave Phnom
Penh. They then traveled by foot to Krek in Kampong
Cham province. There, Chen Seng had to change his
name and tell the local villagers that he was a
charcoal seller.
Chen Seng did not leave the place Angkar had
assigned him until mid-1976, when a village chief
asked him and two other villagers to go for
“education.” About a week later, a young cow herder
told Chen Seng’s wife that he had found three male
bodies deep in the forest. Since it was widely
believed that one of the bodies was probably that of
Chen Seng, no one dared to go and look at the
corpses. My great uncle was never seen again.
His son, Chen Sydin, was evacuated to Tram
Kak district, Takeo province in April 1975. His Aunt
Henag, who still lives in Takeo province, said Angkar
arrested him in 1978 for unknown reasons. Like his
father, Chen Sydin was never seen again.
When conducting research at the Documentation
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