A Khmer Rouge Commander Protected and Saved Our Lives

Cham Muslims in Svay Khleang Village

By Bunthorn Som

Documentation Center of Cambodia

Magazine: Searching for the Truth, Nov 2009



Svay Khleang village was home to about 2,000 families before the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime. By 1979 however only about 100 families remained. Smas was able to survive the evacuation of people from the village and the KR soldiers’ brutal crackdown on Cham rebels.



Smas says that “whenever I recall this story, my head aches terribly.” She pauses for a while and continues in a shaky voice, explaining that her parents were not completely Cham, but were half-Chinese. They farmed rice paddies and planted sesame, sugarcane, and tobacco to feed their 12 children. At the age of 14, Smas could neither obtain education at the Islamic religious school nor the public school; instead, she had to help her parents with household chores.



After Prince Sihanouk was overthrown in the 1970 Coup d’ Etat, some Cham Muslims of Svay Khleang village, Kroch Chhmar district, joined in protests to demand that the prince return to power. Unfortunately, the protest was dispersed by Lon Nol soldiers, who injured some of the demonstrators. Some were wounded; others had their legs fractured. Not long after this horrible crackdown, all Cham Muslim families, including Smas, joined the KR revolutionary movement. Angkar (literally means “organization”) assigned them to the positions of chief of the group, mekang (chief of squad), village chief, and commune chief, with the purpose of leading people to work in the rice paddies in the form of pravas dai (mutual aid teams).



However, Cham Muslim families were still able to have their own kitchens at home. Later, the KR began to eliminate Cham culture and tradition bit by bit. The KR forbade solat (prayer) and Qur’anic recitation at mosques. Cham women were not allowed to wear headscarves. The KR first wrote down names of students, Islamic religious teachers, ulama (traditional Islamic scholars) who performed congregational prayers at the mosque, and even ordinary people in Svay Khleang village, and then arrested all of them. The Cham Muslims of Svay Khleang village ended up rebelling against the KR to free themselves from KR restrictions. However, the rebels were barbarously responded to with artillery, and the survivors were all evacuated. The village was then occupied by many Khmer families.



Smas was evacuated to upper Khsach Prachhes village with her family. Angkar set up a solidarity group and cooperatives, and distributed some rice to the evacuees. About two months later, collectivization began. Angkar collectivized all individual property and wealth and built three communal dining halls in three places. Smas’ name and that of her two siblings were changed: Smas to Sann Vutha; Sary, her old sister, to Eang; and Sariah to Chhoeun, so that they were not confused with other Cham names. After receiving a new name, she was chosen to lead a village mobile unit, composed of 30 families. Due to respect and love from the people, she was promoted to a key keeper of a warehouse. Other Cham evacuee families from Svay Khleang village living in upper Khsach Prochhes village were guarded day and night, and some families were accused of performing prayer. Learning about their difficulties in finding extra food every day, Smas often unlocked the warehouse at night to take some corn and rice for them to eat.



In 1978, after Central Zone soldiers came into the village to replace the chief of upper Khsach Prochess village and arrested other local leaders and Eastern Zone secretary So Phim, many Cham evacuees returned to live in Svay Khleang village because they thought that the soldiers came to liberate them. Evacuees who had occupied Svay Khleang village reported their return to Angkar, saying that the “Cham rebels returned to the village.” As a result, they were re-evacuated. This evacuation was crueler than the first. The KR separated Cham Muslim men from women, and those who were on the KR list were sent to be executed in Trea commune and Koh Phal village. Smas and her family did not know about the arrests and killings, so they were preparing their clothes and leaving for the village. However, when they reached Taduong village, the chief of the Central Zone military stopped them and told them to return to central Khsach Prochhes village.



With the love and affection of Srun, the deputy chief military and an acquaintance of Saroeun, the chief of the military who loved her older sister Eang, Smas was assigned to work as a cook at the Central Zone military base in the central Khsach Prochhess pagoda. She was also able to visit her family, who had not been evacuated, in Svay Khleang village.



As for many other Cham Muslim families, they were grouped on the Mekong River bank located opposite the Khsach Prochhess Kandal Pagoda in order to be evacuated to other villages. Smas saw some families off at the bank before they boarded boats, despite Angkar’s ban, because she longingly remembered sharing a village with them.



One day Smas was standing on military boat parked at the riverbank that transported lots of Cham children. A moment later, the boat moved while Smas was still on it. After the boat was about two hundred meters away from the riverbank, soldiers on the boat put these children in sacks and threw them into the river. When a commander named Saroeun noticed Smas on the boat, he spoke with the boat driver via the phone and ordered the driver to come back to the shore and let Smas leave the boat. A commander told Smas “next time, do not play in this area. This place is for the troops. Also, stop speaking Cham with other Chams from today on.”



Later, Saroeun and Smas became close and Saroeun trusted Smas at some points. After trust had been built between the two, Saroeun invited Smas to take a boat ride with him to see the corpses floating on the river. Smas saw those corpses with her own eyes. Frightened and shocked, Smas did not dare to look at the corpses and begged Saroeun, “brother, please do not take me to see those corpses again.” Saroeun felt bad because of Smas’ begging. “Why you are afraid? I have killed more than two thousand people,” Saroeun coldly replied.



The next day, another troop named Srun told Smas that those corpses were killed on Saroeun’s order. Smas felt more frightened and shocked after hearing that news, and she immediately fell ill.



As a cook, Smas and her sister Sary often made mistakes such as spilling rice and soup and cooking food for their own family members. Because she was close with Saroeun, Smas was protected by him, and Saroeun warned others not to abuse Smas’ family.



Later, the KR cadre interrogated prisoners at the military base at Ksach Prochhess Kandal pagoda. Then, all Cham prisoners were brought to be killed at Beung Ket in Steung Trang district. One of the Cham prisoners who hid their Cham identity survived. At the same time, lots of Cham people were arrested and taken to be executed at the riverbank in Kroch Chmar district. One of them was a man who worked in a mobile unit and who fell in love with Smas. Before he was brought to be killed, that man was allowed to say good-bye to Smas. Smas remembered that that man spoke to her in extreme fright because he was going to be killed. Although she knew that the KR brought that man to be killed, Smas could not help him and save his life.



When the war between the KR and the Vietnamese broke out, Smas and other family members fled and hid themselves in a bush, later returning to Svay Khleang. When she returned, she found that most villagers had been killed.



Nowadays, Smas cannot forget all the atrocities that she witnessed during the KR. When she sees the place where corpses were floating in the river, she feels frightened. However, she also does not want to be reminded about the horrible past. “My family and I survived because of the trust I built with Commander Saroeun. Although Saroeun was a bad guy, at least he protected us and saved our lives,” said Smas.