I Will Explain The Past to My Grandchildren
by Kalyan Sann, Documentation Center of Cambodia
Searching for the Truth, Issue #39, March 2003

Aging witnesses of the Khmer Rouge-era keep the past alive by relating that history to their children, grandchildren, and neighbors. In this article, Ms. Kim Moen, 75, tells her life story. She lives in Kampong Kdei village, Kampong Chen Tbaung sub-district, Stung district, Kampong Thom province. She explains, “I am not a native of Stung. In fact, I left my place of birth to escape Issarak [rebels]. I first came to Stung alone and with nothing. I worked to build a huge house, and acquired farmland, cattle, [etc.]. Unfortunately, my possessions and my family, vanished into thin air at the hands of Pol Pot. Now, as I grow older, I again have nothing and feel alone.”

Moen is a native of Cheung Ak village, Rum Hach sub-district, Angksnuol district, Kandal province. Born in Year of the Dragon (1928), she came from a family with eight siblings, four sisters and three brothers. She was the fourth child. Her father was Nhoung Kim, former First Deputy Chief of a subdistrict of Angksnuol. Her mother, Kao Pil, died when she was 17 years old. They owned a tile-roofed house, 6 hectares of rice fields, yielding approximately 20 Thang a year, 13 hectares of farmlands, some 500 palm trees and 40 cows. She says her family was never hungry and they also gave food to their neighbors.

In 1950, when she was 22, her third brother, Kim Sin, was killed by Issarak soldiers after being accused of siding with the French. Kim Sin had just left the monkhood and was asked by a nephew (a clerk of the Phnom Penh municipality) to work with him. Knowing this, Issarak accused him of being a traitor. For this they executed him.

Moen recalls, “When Issarak came and took my brother I was not at home, I was tending cows in the field. My sister came and told me he had been taken by Issarak. I searched for him everywhere. I asked villagers if they could tell me where he was. I gathered some money hoping to exchange it for my brother’s life. I searched for six or seven days, but heard nothing. Finally, I found the Issarak base where my brother was being held. I asked to see my brother and was made to wait a long time. When I entered, I was shocked to find my brother in a cage. My heart sank further when I saw his hands and feet shackled. He asked me for help, promising that when he was released, he would go into the monkhood for the rest of his life to express his gratitude. Unfortunately, I could not help him. Perhaps two days later, he was taken to a nearby Prey Khmaoch (ghost field) to be killed. He was killed exactly one year after he exited his monkhood in the month of Kadoek.”

Moeun paused for a while and used her scarf to wipe away her tears. She continued, “They killed my brother at dusk, and they told us to take his body and bury it. When morning came, we began searching for him. We finally found his body lying in the dirt at the Issarak military base. He had been decapitated and his wrists were maimed. I pitied him so very much.”

After the murder of Kim Sin, the Issarak rebels made Kim Moen promise not bring any action against them or she would be killed. The district court summoned her father to tell what happened to Kim Sin, but he did not go for fear of an Issarak reprisal. Then the court subpoenaed him, but again he refused to appear. A final order was issued, warning that the family would be found guilty of any potential charges if they did not appear before the court. Therefore, Moen decided to act on behalf of her father, and testify before the court. News of her plan to testify leaked to the Issarak rebels. They were determined to stop her. Moen’s cousin heard that Issarak soldiers were searching for her and warned her. Moen decided to escape to Stung district where her father’s relatives had a palm sugar plantation.

Sobbing, she recalls, “When I left home I brought only a set of clothes, 500 riel, a ring, and a pair of earrings. I left the rest for my family. I was so sad, I had never been separated from my Daddy. I knelt down beside him and said good-bye to him. I could not stop crying. Then I went to live strangers.” She never saw her father again. When she finally returned home after Cambodia received independence from the French and the Issarak movement had quieted, she had had two children of her own, and, sadly, her father had already passed away.

When she moved to Stung to escape Issarak, she asked for asylum in the house of an elderly woman who lived in Kampong Kdei, Kampong Chen Tbaung sub-district. Her name was Phin, and she treated Moen as her daughter. Moreover, elders in the village loved Moen and arranged her marriage with Prum Nhem, a native of Stung. They were married in 1952 when she was twenty-four years old. Like Moen, Prum Nhem was also born in the Year of the Dragon, but 24 years earlier. She said that he passed away in 1968 of old age. When asked why she decided to married a man so much older than her, Moeun replied, “At that time, marriage was arranged at the discretion of elders. If they made a marital match, no one dared refuse. That is why we say, ‘we have to accept our mates even if they are dogs or cats.’”

They worked hard and saved their money. Her husband farmed and worshipped in the pagoda, and she grew vegetables and raised animals. They used their hard earned savings to buy a vast piece of land on which she built a house. She bought many hectares of farmland and many cows for her children.

Moen had four children, three sons and a daughter. She gave a birth to her first child, a son, after she had been married for a year. Her experience as a mother led her to become a midwife. Several years after the birth of her first child, she took a literacy course conducted by foresters based in the village. She learned to read and write, which gave her the ability to study medical textbooks. She eventually became a certified midwife in the provincial town of Kampong Thom town.

In 1971, her eldest son, then 20, was recruited to serve in the Khmer Rouge revolutionary army. She remembers, “At that time, [KR] people at the district and sub-district levels came and urged him to join. They said that he would benefit from the revolution. They said that the army was a very good place for him because he knew how to fight. My son was cold-blooded, he loved guns. He eventually joined.

“The Khmer Rouge recruited [every able-bodied adult] from every house. Even children were recruited to join the army or mobile work brigades. In [my] village, only elders and youngsters remained at home.” In 1973, her son visited her as his unit passed the home village. She recalls, “My son did not stay for long. He just came and paid homage to me, saying, ‘Hello.’ When he left, I watched him wave until he disappeared into the forest. I haven’t heard from him since. His name is Prum Cheng (revolutionary name: Phanh), and if he is still alive he would be 49 years old.”

One night in 1974, the Khmer Rouge evicted her family and the villagers of Stung and relocated them to a densely forested village known as Ta Pich. She drove an ox-cart loaded food, clothes, blankets [and] plates. Her remaining three children carried other luggage and led as many cows as they could. Moen led the big cows, her children led the small ones.

Soon, the Khmer Rouge relocated them again, this time to Prey Kap Ruos. Here there were more changes.

Moen’s daughter Prum Sam An (revolutionary name: Prum Sam En) was sent to work in a mobile brigade at a remote construction site and was only able to visit Moen once or twice a month. Her second son, then 10, also worked in a far-away mobile brigade and only visited occasionally. Her youngest son stayed in Prey Kap Ruos and collected dung to fertilize the rice fields. After defeating the Khmer Republic on 17 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge’s Angkar sent Sam An to work in a garment factory in Phnom Penh. Moen lost track of her daughter until 1988, when she heard that her daughter was living in Khav Y Dang camp along the Cambodian-Thai border. She has not heard anything since.

When the KR took Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, they forced everyone out of the city. The Khmer Rouge also sent many people in Prey Kap Ruos to an area west of National Road Number 6. Moen took the opportunity to go to her house to retrieve more luggage. However, the remaining luggage had been seized by the Khmer Rouge and the house destroyed, only five posts remained. She says, “They did not allow me to take anything, they accused me of lacking the ability to sacrifice.”

In Prey Kap Ruos, the Khmer Rouge assigned Moen to transplant rice, build dams, and to make compost. She was then made chief of the cooperative for almost a year. She was responsible for distributing food, tools, and other equipment to other villages and mobile brigades. The policy of communal eating was not yet in practice, people cooked at their own homes with unmilled rice from the cooperative. She always gave people more rice than she was supposed to, knowing that any remaining unmilled rice would just be taken from her coop, to a larger cooperative barn.

Moen always worried that she would be replaced for giving out the stores of unmilled rice. In all, she gave out about 600 Thangs of rice. Then it happened, she was summoned to the headquarters. She remembers, “Five coop chiefs (two women and three men) wanted to see me. I was so frightened, I thought I would be killed. The sub-district chief questioned me, ‘Who decided to distribute the unmilled rice? How much did you distribute?’ I replied, ‘200 Thangs,’ but actually it was 600. I reasoned that the newly harvested rice, not well-dried, would rot in the heat. So I just delivered it to the villagers [before it spoiled]. The chiefs were baffled and didn’t know what to say.”

Moen was demoted from coop chief to chief of the eating hall when the communal eating policy was in practice. She says that when on duty she always hid extra food and rice from the logistic chief, so that the villagers could have enough to eat. For example, she said, if the rice ration was three cans per person, she served two cans per person so that the rice they were given would last longer. And if the logistic chief delivered too little salt, she wouldn’t salt his food, which made him realize that more was needed. She says she always gave extra rice, salt, and sugar to those who asked, regardless of whether they were ‘base people’ or ‘new people.’

After working for a year as chief of the eating hall, she was made chief of the Women’s Rescue Team (Midwife Unit). She says the Angkar provided nothing to the unit, except for a tool to cut the umbilical cord. The were not provided with medicine, and had to explore traditional medicine such as boiled tree bark. Moen recalled the increasing brutality during the KR rule. The Khmer Rouge gradually began killing more and more people, until “[the killing] reached its peak in 1977. Food rations were reduced and people in my cooperative died one after another due to starvation, overwork, and execution.”

Today, Kim Moen lives with her youngest child, her son Prum Nuon, who works for the public school in Stung district. Her second youngest, son Prum Chuon, earns his living fishing in Kampong Thom. Moen continues to wonder what became of her oldest child, son Prum Cheng. She has not seen him since the day he walked into the forest in 1993. She says that for years she would watch the road and anticipate his return, but now she tries to stop thinking about him. “If he was alive, he would have come [home by now].” Her second oldest, her daughter Sam An, now lives in Sweden. Moen touches a photo of her daughter and says, “I have only one daughter and now she lives in a place far away from me. Sometimes I cry when I feel sorry for myself, getting older and older, while children and grandchildren are far away.” Moen will continue to tell her stories of the Issarak and Pol Pot era. She suggests that it is up to us to teach our children to be good, honest, and just. This is the only way to ensure that the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge era never happens again.

Knowing the Truth Brings about Catharsis
Heng Teng: A Prisoner of Tuol Sleng
by Kalyan Sann, Documentation Center of Cambodia
Searching for the Truth, Issue #40, April 2003

The morning of 19 March 2024 brought great surprise to the people of Ang Roneap village, Tram Kak district, Takeo province. Villagers crowded together to see the confession document of Heng Teng provided by the Documentation Center of Cambodia. Chhay Chrun said, “This is the first time that our villagers know that a man disappeared. In this sub-district, there are many people who were missing and their surviving relatives do not know their fate at all. Right now, people are so surprised.”

Heng Eung, 66, the sister of the missing Heng Teng, said, “A few days ago youngsters here said that they had received information about Heng Teng, my younger brother. Although I know that my brother is already dead, when I heard that there are documents showing the place and when he died, I feel so happy. Nothing has been heard about him for more than 30 years now. Now when you show me such documents, I am so glad, even if my brother did not survive.”

Heng Teng was a prisoner in Toul Sleng who was executed in 1976. Heng Teng was a native of Tram Kak village, Nheng Nhang sub-district (now known as Tram Kak sub-district), Tram Kak district, Kandal province. He was the fifth of seven children. His mother was Khmer and his father was Chinese. His house was located in the vicinity of Phsar Tram Kak. During his childhood, Heng Teng went to a Chinese school in Nheng Nhang sub-district established by the Chinese Association. In 1952, Heng Teng entered a primary school called Sala Bambinh Vichea Tram Kak. Chhay Chrun, 64, a former friend of Heng Teng since childhood, recalled, “Heng Teng was the best student. He always was first on the annual honorary list. Local villagers and his teachers recognized that he was a good student, industrious and polite.”

In 1958, he left the primary school to attend Preah Otey Junior High School, Takeo province, where he stayed with a military captain named Hou Hong Sin. In 1962, Heng Teng graduated from the Junior High School and enrolled in Sisowath High School in Phnom Penh. Hou Sin moved to Phnom Penh the same year. Heng Teng came and stayed with Hou, who provided Heng Teng with support and food.

In 1964, Heng Teng graduated and passed the entrance examination to become a reserved candidate for the Cambodia-Soviet Institute of Technology. In March 1970, Heng Teng graduated with a bachelor of science degree, specializing in electrical engineering. After becoming an electrical engineer, Heng Teng became a professor of electrical engineering, teaching at the Institute of Technology.

In 1968, Chhay Chrun, who worked in construction sites in Phnom Penh, met Heng Teng by accident in front of the institute. After the coup organized by Lon Nol on March 18, 1970, Tram Kak district became a liberated area. Communications between Heng Teng and his family in Tramk Kak were cut off.

On April 17, 2024 Heng Teng’s family was evacuated to Chroy Takeo sub-district, Koh Thom district, Kandal province, and in October, to Preah Net Preah sub-district, Preah Net Preah district, Battambang province.

Besides Heng Teng and his wife, the families of three of his sisters and brothers were also moved to Battambang and they all disappeared. It was not until after 1979 that Heng Eung was told that her three sisters and brothers were killed by the Khmer Rouge, at the same time that Heng Teng was missing.

In 1981, Chou Tep, Heng Teng’s former teacher in primary school visited Tuol Sleng genocide museum and found the mugshot of Heng Teng on the wall of the museum. He brought this news to Heng Teng’s family in Tram Kak district. For this reason, his family assumed that Heng Teng must have been executed at Tuol Sleng.

Confession of Heng Teng

His confession consists of eleven separate documents. Three of them, each numbering 21 pages, describe his personal history and activities. Another document, consisting of 5 pages, is a list of 70 people purportedly involved in CIA activities with Heng Teng. Another 6 documents, totaling 42 pages, give details about 14 people implicated by Teng, labeled as his network of CIA informants. In addition, there is a one-page brief biography of Heng Teng. Both the biography and the confession bear no specific dates.

Chhay Chrun claimed that the handwriting on Heng Teng’s confession is not that of Heng Teng. It seems likely that the documents were written either by interrogators or by note takers.

According to his confession, Heng Teng joined the CIA in 1973 because of Military Police Colonel Khoem Kas and received indoctrination from Prum Ton, Military Police Captain of the Khmer Republic administration. After becoming a CIA spy, Heng Teng was put in charge of following the activities of Khmer Rouge students and persuading them to join the liberal regime, and to shoot and throw grenades at Khmer Rouge forces when they entered Phnom Penh. After April 17, 1975, Teng was responsible for encouraging people to cause trouble for the Revolution, to destroy production tools and factory equipment, and to convince people not to believe in the revolutionary Angkar’s leadership. Chhay Chrun said, “I almost don’t believe that Heng Teng joined the CIA. However, I dare not make any assumptions since I was separate from him at that time. Probably real circumstances required him to do so or he just made a safe confession to keep him from being tortured or the Khmer Rouge themselves just made it up to put blame on him so that they would have a reason to kill him.”

Based on the list of prisoners executed at Tuol Sleng, Heng Teng was executed on May 23, 1976.

May 20: I Miss My Grandfather and Uncle
by Kalyan Sann, Documentation Center of Cambodia
Searching for the Truth, Issue 29, May 2002

When I was young, May 20 commemoration was just a vague event in my mind. I had never put much effort to understand the importance of this day. Through radio and newspapers, I learnt that this day is a day on which Khmer people meet, share and recall their agony and family separation during the Democratic Kampuchea (DK). I did not even know what the man named Pol Pot was. I did not comprehend what the Democratic Kampuchea regime, which Khmer people called Pol Pot regime, really was, despite the fact that I was born when the Khmer Rouge began evacuating people from the cities. I did not understand why this regime killed millions of their own people.

Little by little, the curiosity to know about Pol Pot regime, individuals named Pol Pot, Leng Sary, Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea…and the nasty souls of these people began to take shape, when I was studying at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and much more at the present. I am now well aware of the magnitude of the historical tragedy of Cambodia caused by these few people. Every family can never forget and want to meet such an event again.

Because I was born at the beginning of this regime, I could not remember any occurrence during that time. My father told me that he lost his father and youngest brother to the regime. My uncle died in a child mobile unit due to starvation. My grandfather died of illnesses caused by malnutrition and overworking. My affection toward them is not deep, since I have never seen them. However, for my father his remorse for the lost of his beloved father and brother is indescribable. His anger at the regime rises up every time he recalls his past story.

May 20 was the day on which the Khmer Rouge began establishing non-discriminative cooperatives, in which people were ordered to eat and live together. But in reality, it was the beginning of the people's starvation. It was the day the Khmer Rouge began to kill people by forcing them to accomplish labor-intensive works with little food allowance. The day my grandfather and uncle began to suffer from hunger until their final deaths.

Khmer Rouge leaders! Answer my question, why did you kill my relatives? Why didn't you provide them food to eat when they needed it desperately?

May 20 is coming closer, again. I do not want this day to arrive, for it is the day which makes me feel sad for the past. Yet, I never want to forget this, as long as my father does not receive just compensation for the lost of his father and brother. Cambodian government and the United Nations should not ignore the establishment of the Khmer Rouge tribunal and allow the worst criminals in Cambodian history, whose hands are soaked with blood, to live outside the net of law freely among the people. I want the tribunal to be born on May 20, 2002. I want justice. So do my father, the people, and the whole world.

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