A Story of Khon Savin

By Farina So

In her early 40, Khon Savin, primary school teacher of Svay Daun Keo commune, Bakan district, Pursat province recalls a painful memory when her family was evacuated to Rumlech commune in front of Mr. Andrew Cayley, Khmer Rouge Tribunal's International Prosecutor, during a meeting with Khmer Kampuchea Krom survivors in Pursat province. The most salient memory of Savin is the deaths of her father, Suy Hong, and many other relatives during the Khmer Rouge regime. Hong was accused of eating human flesh and was sent to be killed during 1977.

Hong, age 30, was a tailor and had no blood with Khmer Krom or Vietnamese, but his wife. During the regime, he was told to bury the dead with several other men. Savin recalls that due to exhaustion, her father could not dig the pits deeply and bury the dead completely, so they were torn by wolfs or other similar kind of animals. He was then allegedly accused of eating the dead flesh. He was walked by two KR cadres with machetes in their hands at day time and Savin, as she already lost her mother, walked behind her father.

Her father pleaded and kneeled in front of her uncle, Khon, to let his daughter survive as she is his blood. As promised her uncle made every effort to keep Savin safe. Even one day Savin wanted to go along with people when they were called to grow corn, he did not let her go. During the regime a request to go to other place or grow things usually meant the evacuees would be killed.

Her mother was Khmer Krom. In less than one year after her evacuation to Rumlech, she looked exhausted as she was pregnant. The KR viewed her mother as unable-bodied person and needed to be rid as laid out in their plan. Savin was about six years old at that time and remembers that the KR would get rid of all Khmer Krom, for they were accused of having “Vietnamese brain.” One day her mother fell very ill and was hospitalized. Savin was told that her mother was injected with water and died immediately in the hospital.

As painful memory is still with her, Savin never forgets it but remembers as if the event was current. It is hard for her to let it go, she said. “Although I was young at that time, but I feel I can recall most of our account and suffering.”

Her family name is derived from her uncle’s name, Khon. She even calls his uncle “father” because he saves her life and raises her so far.

This story is very personal to her. I have observed, from one to another interview, that she can recall her story well without changing any information. The most memorable event which is saturated throughout the interviews is the story of her father.

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Farina So, Team Leader, Cham Oral History Project of the Documentation Center of Cambodia


Searching for the Truth.
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