The Book of Memory of Those Who Died under the Khmer Rouge

Kok-Thay Eng





A Story of a Phnom Penh’s Elite Family under the Khmer Rouge

Sisamuth Eng Sunnari was the oldest daughter of a large family of eight children. When the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh she was about 15 years old. She remembers the day of the evacuation vividly. Her family lived in a villa near Pasteur street in Phnom Penh. On the day the Khmer Rouge came to Phnom Penh, like other families, Sunnari’s family was busy gathering and counting members to make sure everybody was onboard for the hasty trip to the countryside. After loading belongings onto a wagon, her father Sisamuth Chan Sari, wrote a note and stuck it on the front gate of their villa. Sunnari remembers her asking her father the purpose of the letter. He said the letter was for an old friend named Khieu Samphan to read when would arrive in Phnom Penh. It said in Sunnari’s words: “Brother, if you saw this letter, please help us. We have left to our hometown in Kartie.” Sunnari did not know who Khieu Samphan was. So she asked her father about the person. Her father told her that Khieu Samphan used to stay in her grandfather’s house when Khieu Samphan was a young student, coming to the city to study. Now Sunnari’s father expected Khieu Samphan to return some favor to the family. Sunnari’s family never met and never heard about Khieu Samphan for a long time since the war began.



The family was evacuated to Khsach Andet commune, Chhlong district, Kratie province. They were put in a Cham village. By this time the Khmer Rouge had intended to mix Cham and Khmer families together in an attempt to mix cultures and diffuse ethnical religions. Sometimes they dispersed the Chams from their traditional villages to other parts of the country. In November 1975 the Khmer Rouge had already planned to relocate more than 150,000 Chams from Eastern zone after a rebellion by the same people against the Khmer Rouge earlier in the year. In a cold, winter night in the early 1976, Sunnari’s father (Sisamuth Chan Sari) was taken away by the Khmer Rouge. He was loaded onto a boat along with many other people. Sunnari never saw her father since then. In around May 1978, two years after the devastating disappearance of her father, Sunnari’s mother (Tep Kim Seng) and her seven younger siblings were taken away by the Khmer Rouge. Sunnari was not at the scene when it happened. She was sent to the border and was later sheltered from the Khmer Rouge by a Cham family. Sunnari was told that many black trucks came to the village and took many people away along with her family.



Sunnari’s mother Tep Kim Seng was the second wife of her father Sisamuth Chan Sari who had married a French wife and had eight children with her. Today members of his first wife are living in France. Chan Sari was a staff member of the Commisier Central. He later became an employee of the Cambodian Red Cross. His father named Sam Sisamuth was a former mayor of Phnom Penh city. Sunnari’s experience was a story of an upper class Phnom Penh family which was devastated by the Khmer Rouge. Today she lives in Kampong Thom province. As she reveals the plight of her family, for the first time in a formal way to DC-Cam, she cried and she wanted to send her words to Khieu Samphan. How could he be so ungrateful toward the people who had sheltered and cared for him?



Surviving relative: Sisamuth Eng Sunnari, Age: 50, Address: Kampong Thom province.



Relatives Died Under the Khmer Rouge:



Sisamuth Chan Sari (a.k.a Chhaom)

-Sex: Male

-Age: Born in the year of the tiger

-Died: Early 1976, at age 50

-Relation with survivor: Father

-Story: Left Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 and headed for birthplace in Kratie along with family, but was settled in Prek Tahub village, Ksach Andet commune, Chhlong district, Kratie province. He was taken by the Khmer Rouge at 12 pm at night and then loaded onto a boat with many other peoples, according to Sisamuth Eng Sunnari.



Tep Kim Seng (a.k.a Eng)

-Sex: Female

-Age: Born in the year of the dragon

-Died: In May 1978, at age 35

-Relation with survivor: Mother

-Story: In May 1978, many trucks came to the village and loaded people away, along with seven siblings of Sisamuth Chan Sari. They include:



Sisamuth Eng Sunnarong (called Pach), female, year of tiger

Sisamuth Chandarit (called Bros), male, year of rabbit

Sisamuth Chansori (called Srei), female, year of dragon

Sisamuth Chanyurann, male, year of snake

Sisamuth Chansomaly, female, year of horse

Sisamuth Keomony, female, year of goat

Sisamuth Kati, female, year of monkey



Letter from Thai Sokhom

May name is Thai Sokhom, daughter of Thai Cho (dead) and Khut Hakk, 76. I reside in Snar Py Muk village, Prek Khporp sub-district, Ek Phnom Phnom district, (former Sangke district), Battambang province. I would like to search for a person by the name of Thai Han (now 50), who left the Faculty of Law while he was taking a preparatory course for the official entry exam. He stayed in the care of his cousin Chum Chuop and her husband Ven Von, a worker at the Seng Thai Textile Factory, Kilometer 6, Phnom Penh. Around April 17, 1975 I heard that Thai Han visited [our] homestead by bicycle, driving across Kampong Thom province. When he reached Kampong Kdei district, Siem Reap, information about him stopped. Therefore I would call for your return because our mother is getting older, while waiting for you all the time. I would also like to appeal to the general public that if Thai Han is found, I can be reached at House No.135, Group 9, Sna Mukpy village, Ek Phnom district, Battambang province.



Letter from Ly La

My father’s name was Korn Ty Chheang, but in Pol Pot time he changed it to Lim Chor to avoid detection. However, they still found him in 1977. My father was born in Takeo in 1929 and joined the French Colonial Army around 1948. He was stationed in Thmar Pech, Kampong Cham province until the French left and Cambodia gained independence. He was later transferred to Kampong Speu and then to Phnom Penh after the coup in 1970. He was a major in the Artillery Division.



After Pol Pot entered Phnom Penh, we went to his hometown in Takeo province, and later were put on the train to Sisophon. My family was “distributed” to Bos-sbov village in Phnom Srok district in late 1975. There, my father still went by the name of Lim Chor, hoping that no one knew his background. But unfortunately, there were people from his home town who knew him and were sent to the same village with us. To gain favor from the village leadership, they reported my father’s army background to the district security chief. However, with luck and hard work, my father managed to hang on until March or April of 1977. One night around 10:00, according to my mother, the group leader came to the hut and called him see the village chief for a meeting. My mother knew right away that this must be the end, but dared not to ask or do anything. My sisters and I were in the fields at that time. My father never returned. Thereafter, we were warned to shut up and forced to take double workloads every day.



A few weeks later, I was told that my father was seen in Phnom Srok, the district capital, which is about 5 km from Bos-Sbov. But back then, there were all kinds of rumors and it was hard to verify because, as you know, you could only whisper to close friends.



I know that there is almost no chance that my father is still alive, but I just want to get a sense of closure on this ordeal. Moreover, after reading Issue 9 of your magazine (September 2000) on Mass Graves in Banteay Meanchey, I hope that there may be some documents or witnesses that can shed some light on what happened to my father, especially Mr. Chhum Ruom, a deputy district governor and former prisoner in Phnom Srok, who was interviewed by your magazine. Maybe he can help if we can contact him.



Letter of Gratitude for Identification of a Father

My name is Khun Kol Phievatei, and I reside in Svay Rieng Province. I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia’s Searching for the truth, and his colleagues for finding my father’s identification. He was captured and killed by Angkar at Tuol Sleng Prison (S-21).



With this thanks, I would also like to make another request: In the next volume of your magazine, please publish my father’s picture and the confession he recorded at S-21 so that I can see his face and read the dreadful words. I strongly hope that you will fulfill my request as well as those of Cambodian citizens who wish to learn the truth. I wish you and your subordinates happiness and safety.





The Book of Memory of Those Who Died under the Khmer Rouge

The Documentation Center of Cambodia is writing and compiling a book of records of names of those who died under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979 and those who disappeared during the period, who are still not known by their relatives. It also includes a section for family tracing purposes. DC-Cam already has in its database up to a million names of those who may have died under the Khmer Rouge.



This book of memory and records also lists names of prisoners found at S-21 and 200 other security centers under the Khmer Rouge regime. Under the Khmer Rouge regime nearly two million people died of four main causes: execution by the Khmer Rouge, starvation, forced labors and malnutrition. The four causes are interconnected. People were executed in the villages, in the rice fields, in a nearby forest or simply around the compound of a security center. Some died along the border in the war between Cambodia and Vietnam. The other causes of death include that of starvation, forced labors and malnutrition. Although the Khmer Rouge put virtually all ordinary people to work in the fields to grow food or do field-supporting activities, they were given little food to eat in return. As a result starvation was a major cause of death under the Khmer Rouge. Many of these people were forced to work long hours, up to 12 or 14 hours a day, without rest seven days a week. With very little food and virtually no modern medical care, many people died as a result.



There are many ways in which people were separated from their families. The civil war between 1970 and 1975 effectively divided Cambodia between the “liberated area” controlled by the Khmer Rouge and areas controlled by the Khmer Republic led by General Lon Nol. Families and relatives were often separated. In some instances, brothers fought on either side of the war. They were unable to reconcile even when the war was over in 1975. In addition, as the Khmer Rouge was overthrown by the Vietnamese, a large portion of the population moved along with the retreating Khmer Rouge to the west and the Thai border, instead of returning home. Some were able to move to third countries. Others repatriated in the early 1990s.



In addition, families were torn apart when the Khmer Rouge finally took over Cambodia in April 1975. This time deliberate policies were set up to make sure that the family institution was destroyed. During the Khmer Rouge regime of three years, eight months and twenty days, almost two million Cambodian people of all creeds, political orientations and ethnicities perished due to summary execution, malnutrition, starvation and forced labor. Families were deliberately separated and put into labor units. Various work brigades were created to replace previous social units. Marriages were organized en masse by Angkar (the name for the shadowy Khmer Rouge leadership). Children were put in child units and taught that their parents were Angkar. At the end of the Khmer Rouge regime in January 1979, people walked back to their homes of 1975 hoping that they would meet their family members. However, only some families were rejoined with their lost relatives during that time. With a minimal death rate of up to one in seven, most people arrived home alone, and almost everyone found some of their family members missing as they tried to rebuild their lives. People made efforts both during the Khmer Rouge regime and after to locate their lost relatives, but their efforts have too often been futile. We are consistently told that the most important piece of information that survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime would like to know with certainty is the fate of their lost loved ones.



The book of records would also include basic information relating to the Khmer Rouge history, its security apparatus, its rise and its demise. It would also discuss concepts relating to disappearance and its impacts on psychological well-being of survivors today. This book would also include names of those DC-Cam has in its Biographical Database, which DC-Cam is not certain whether they were dead or alive. These names would help in family tracing efforts. The book would be distributed free of charge to commune offices in Cambodia, so that people can see the names of their lost relatives and search for those names that DC-Cam has on records. The book would then receive comments from villagers on accuracy of the information and family tracing requests.



By publishing names of those people who died under the Khmer Rouge and their stories, the book has many roles. It is an acknowledgement of the suffering of those who died under the Khmer Rouge. For thirty years after the Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979, people have talked about the regime in formal and informal settings, 80 memorials were constructed around the country and a few genocide museums were built including Tuol Sleng. However, these places tend to be nameless and faceless. Many of them exhibit skulls and bones. They signify the gross violence of genocide, but they have very few individualistic characters. This is the gap that this book attempts to fill in. The book not only for the first time in thirty years record names of those people who died under the Khmer Rouge, it also includes a short story about of each individual, relating to the moment they were evacuated from cities or their early experience with the Khmer Rouge in the “liberated areas”, the work teams they were assigned to and ultimately the story relating to their death. These stories would be told through the memories of their surviving relatives. The book would also include any memories of the victims, including photographs, handwriting and pictures of their artifacts. For those victims who were prisoners of a security center, a summary of their confessions would be included to reveal their suffering under the torture center. By helping to locate lost family members or to determine whether they are dead or alive, the book would play important parts in process of closure for survivors.



If you would like to have your relatives’ names, who died under the Khmer Rouge or disappeared then, appearing in this book, please contact Mr. Kok-Thay ENG at tel: 012-955-858 or email: truthkokthay@dccam.org.