Searching for the truth Issues 28 - Documentation Center of Cambodia

Searching for the Truth ⎯ FAMILY TRACING
accused of bringing food supplies to the “Khmer Rouge.”
The next day we traveled on our neighbor’s ox
cart to Banteay Treng. It was evening when we arrived.
We had to camp outside the base and wait patiently to
see her. The next morning, we and other people asked
the commander for permission to visit the prisoners.
At about 11:00 in the morning, the prisoners were
allowed out to visit their relatives. Because we were
small, we had to push our way through the crowd of
people at the gate. Mom was nowhere to be seen. I
grabbed the barbed wire fence separating the prisoners
and the visitors, and looked for her in every direction
until my eyes hurt, but still I could not find her.
My older brother and I were about to ask the chief
of the prison guards to check the list to make sure her
name was on it. But then, a hand made rough by labor
grabbed my hand tightly and I heard a murmur, “My
daughter! My daughter!” I was so shocked that I wanted
to jerk my hand away, but then I looked up.
I saw a female prisoner with bushy gray hair,
nasty wounds on her body, and bruised eyelids, which
made her eyeballs look whiter than normal. What she
was wearing was beyond imagination. Her clothes were
ragged and faded, and torn just like those of a beggar.
I peered at her closely, but I could not recognize her.
Only when I saw two amputated fingers did I realize
that she was my mother. After just half a month of
separation, my mother had become skeletal. I placed
her hands on my cheeks and my tears came flooding
out, wetting her hands completely. My brother could
barely speak; he just shook his head and sobbed: “Oh,
mommy! Oh, mommy!”
He opened a box of fried shrimp, grilled fish,
and rice, and then handed them to mum. I gave her some
dried bananas for dessert. We had nothing else. As soon
as she saw the package of dried bananas, my mother
chided us in a soft voice: “Why don’t you send it to our
comrades in the mountains?” I told her that we had
already sent some food, and this was what was left over.
When I put my hands on her chest, she jerked
Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)
Number 28, April 2002
back. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked her. “Nothing,”
she replied, and turned to talk about other things. Only
later did I learn that her chest was completely burnt by
the cigarettes our barbaric enemies had thrust into her,
trying to force her to reveal the hideouts of our
fighters in the forest. But my mother was committed
to the fighting. She always said no to them. She was
tortured into unconsciousness four or five times a day.
She was not given food or water. When she became
too thirsty, she drank her own urine. However, they
could not force her to give them the answers they wanted.
My mother asked me: “Did Uncle Noeun come
to our home?” “No, he did not,” I replied. “Our comrades
probably starved to death in the forest! I’m very sorry
that I was caught before I could reach them,” she sighed
as two tears rolled down her face. She squeezed our
hands tightly, then said: “You both must perform this
duty for me. Otherwise, I cannot rest in peace. Can you
promise me?” Her loyalty and devotion to the revolution
was absorbed into our hearts through her eyes, breath
and warm hands. We were inspired and declared
simultaneously: “We will definitely accomplish this
task for the revolution.” If we had not been separated
by barbed wire, mother would have kissed us with
great satisfaction.
(Continued in the June 2003 issue)
Khmer Rouge Stance
◆ Real elements are close to the public: The public
sides with the party. A committee of the party will not
be strong if the public does not support it. Support
involves consciousness and organization.
(Revolutionary Flag, June 07, 1976)
◆ Khmer Rouge's definition of word “Violence”: Use
of force by people or a political group to smash their
life-and-death enemies. (Excepted from the book:
“Geography of the Democratic Kampuchea”, for
second grade education, printed in 1977)
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