Family Tracing and Reconciliation STORY FROM THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE SURVIVORS

Family Tracing and Reconciliation
The Book of Memory of Those Who Died under the Khmer Rouge
by Kok-Thay Eng

STORY FROM THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE SURVIVORS
CHUM SAM ATH
Chum Sam Ath has seven siblings. Their home village is Chong Prek village, Kandal province. In 1973 they moved to Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge captured the district. They lived in an area called O' Bek Ka-Am. In Phnom Penh, Chum Sam Ath worked as an airport police. Chum Sam Ol worked at the ministry of rural development. Chum Saray was a Lon Nol's paramilitary soldier. When the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 1975, they walked back to their home village. On that day, Yum Sam Ol was visiting his office at the ministry of rural development. Chum Saray left the family, which was temporarily staying at the house of their aunt near Olympic market, to visit their home at O' Bek Ka-am. The Khmer Rouge set up curfew soon afterward. Chum Saray and Chum Sam Ol were lost. As for the family of Chum Lim, they were evacuated from Kien Svay district, Kandal province in 1977 with four of their children. All disappeared. On the day of evacuation, the two remaining children were in mobile units. They survived. Chum Sam Ath is glad to be telling this story of his family to a formal institution for the first time. He wants his relatives to be recorded.

PERSONAL IMFORMATION:

Chum Sam Ath
Surviving Relative: Chum Sam Ath
Male, 58
Kien Svay, Kandal province

Relatives Died under the Khmer Rouge
Vann Van
Brother-in-Law
Born in around 1940
Died in 1977

Chum Lim
Older Sister
Born in year of rabbit
Died in 1977
Wife of Vann Van
Vann Van and Chum Lim had six children. Four died under the Khmer Rouge:
Vann Sokhom, Female
Vann Sokhorn, Female
Vann Vuthy, Male
Vann Vutha, Male

Chum Pich
Nephew
Died in 1977 at around 7 years old

Khut Sean
Elder cousin
Died in 1977 at age of 31

Chum Saray
Older Brother
Born year of pig
Separated since 1975
Still missing
Should be around 64 years old today

Chum Sam-Ol
Older Brother
Born year of rabbit
Separated since 1975
Still missing
Should be in his 60s today

End.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
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 Kok-Thay ENG at tel: 012-955-858 or email: truthkokthay@dccam.org.

Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE

“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”

Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia