Searching for the truth Issues 28 - Documentation Center of Cambodia

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Number 28, April 2002
Communist Workers’ Party of Denmark.
Ieng Sary, former deputy prime minister in charge
of foreign affairs, emphasized that on April 17, 1975,
the day of great victory, he was not in the country. Ieng
Sary said that then he was on duty in China and would
not come back to Cambodia until April 25. He said he
was not involved in making the decision to evacuate
people. The plan to evacuate people from the cities was
initiated by Pol Pot and aimed at seeking and arresting
enemies of the revolution.
Hor, chief of the hundred-member unit of Division
703, was assigned to evacuate people from the city, but
he claimed that he did not know the plan’s ultimate
objective. On the morning of April 17, 1975 he was
ordered to send people out of the city within three days.
He immediately began to implement the party’s order.
His unit was responsible for evacuating people who lived
near Kirirom Cinema from Phnom Penh to Kampong
Speu, Takeo, and Kampot provinces by traveling down
the street where the glass manufacturer was located.
That day Hor, clad in black pajamas, a red scarf, and a
cap, with and a microphone in his hand and accompanied
by two well armed soldiers, announced the party’s plan
to have people leave their homes. Hor admitted that a
group of soldiers did in fact fire warning bullets, but
denied having done so himself. He said he just checked
homes and announced the party’s plan. Hor recalled his
announcement: “You have to pack your luggage and
leave the city for a week in order to escape from the
bombing by America.” In the evening of April 17, Hor’s
group found about ten Lon Nol soldiers hiding near Pet
Chin Hospital and smashed them all.
Theng was a Khmer Rouge cadre in charge of
evacuating people living near Oreussey market. Theng
said he was ordered to implement two plans given by the
party: 1) arrest former Lon Nol police who surrendered,
and 2) evacuate people who lived near Oreussey market
to Kandal Province, departing from Kbal Thnal. His
group carried out the first plan with good results,
arresting 50 former Lon Nol soldiers who hid themselves
to the north of Dara Rasmey High School, and sending
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Searching for the Truth ⎯ DOCUMENTATION
them to higher Angkar. Theng’s group also implemented
the second plan effectively by making an announcement
to ask people who lived near Oreussey market to depart
to Kbal Thnal. Soldiers who were in charge of the Kbal
Thnal area sent them to Kandal province. Theng recalled
a terrible event at that time, saying that a soldier in his
group pushed an old woman from the fourth floor of a
flat east of Oreussey market because she was “against
Angkar’s plan.” Theng said that in reality, the woman
was paralyzed and her children had left her alone in the
flat.
After leaving the city, Phala, a fighter in Division
703, found a dead body in a bed. The body was very
thin and bore no scar. Phala claimed the victim died of
disease or hunger.
Along with the evacuation plan Angkar ordered
those in the lower class to seek and kill enemies. Tam,
a former chief of Kampeng commune, Pre Kabas district,
Takeo province, said he was ordered to carry out the
party’s plan. In mid-1975 he arrested and sent several
former Lon Nol soldiers in Kampeng commune to the
district chief of Prey Kabas.
Another Khmer Rouge cadre named Em Min,
alias Sen, was ordered to find and kill enemies. According
to the plan, the party was to receive the evacuees from
the cities and provincial towns, and arrange for them to
live in villages and communes. Those who were mingled
with the people would be singled out and sent to another
place for clear evaluation and investigation. Those
identified as officials would be smashed one by one.
April 17, 1975 was a day of great victory for the
Khmer Rouge. It was also the day that they began
undertaking their plan to search out and kill the enemies
of the revolution. Consequently, more than two million
people were killed by the Khmer Rouge, who saw April
17, 1975 as the beginning of their “great leap forward.”
_______________________
Meng-Try Ea is a co-author of Victims and Perpetrators?:
Testimony of Young Khmer Rouge Comrades. Phnom
Penh: Documentation Center of Cambodia, 2001.
Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)