photo : savong voeuk
Flight We were a middle-class family in the provincial city of Battambang . My father was an investigator with the local police . My parents had 5 children ( 4 sons , 1 daughter ) and I was the youngest . That fateful summer , my oldest brother was at university in the capital , Phnom Penh , another brother was at a local college and my third brother was visiting relatives . My sister and I were at home for the school holidays .
Although our country was in crisis , our city remained unaffected until 1975 . When the soldiers came to our door , they told us to leave immediately . My parents , my sister and I left with the clothes on our back , some food for a couple of days and some money . We were not allowed to get our brother at college even though he was only a mile away . We left our dog behind at our house as well . I would find out later that my brother had returned to our house from college to find everyone had left . He fled with everyone else too . We didn ’ t see him or my brother who had been on vacation for another couple of years .
We never saw our oldest brother again . In all likelihood , he was killed because he was very light-skinned ( a mark of a nonfarmer ) and also attending university . The Khmer Rouge eradicated the educated and the non-farmers without mercy . When the soldiers arrived in our city , they asked the teachers , lawyers , police and anyone with an education to make themselves known so that they could receive their reward . Many people came forward but the reward turned out to be death .
Luckily my father did not believe anything the soldiers said . He knew he had to hide the fact that he was fluent in 6 languages ( Cambodian , Chinese , English , French , Thai and Vietnamese ) and was a career policeman . He told us to pretend that we could not read or write . In the summers , we had usually gone to our aunt ’ s house to help her with her farm . My father told us to remember all the details of our summers so that we could pass ourselves off as the children of farmers .
The exodus from Battambang was a throng of panic-filled people . The streets were packed with cars stuck in traffic and people , all fleeing the horror of the supposed
“ To keep you is no benefit . To destroy you is no loss .”
Khmer Rouge motto ( referring to the educated and city dwellers )
impending American bombing . We were told to flee further and further from the city Eventually my family stopped at a village north of Battambang . Pretty shortly , just like everyone else , we ran out of food and water . We tried to buy food but there was nothing to buy . Money was worthless even if you had it . I remember rich people setting themselves and their money on fire in desperation and hunger . At least though , they got to pick their time and method of dying .
My mother and I went back to our home in Battambang to get our dog during this time . We found our dog had been killed and our house burned to the ground . Formerly full of life and noise , the entire city had become a ghost town and the silence was eerie . There was nothing left for us in Battambang so we returned to the village where we had sought shelter .
SURVIVAL The Khmer Rouge came for me one night . We knew it was going to happen because every family was eventually separated . The Khmer Rouge believed that the parents were tainted by Western influence and removing the children made them easier to indoctrinate into communists . Of course , people are also easier to control when they are isolated from their family and friends . Still , I was terrified when I was bundled into the back of a buffalo cart . The night transfer made it too dark to see where I was going or which way I was being taken .
I was taken to a work camp with children around my age . In the beginning , we slept outside in the cold and the rain . Eventually , after they built huts , the children were packed onto the floor like sardines , toe to toe , shoulder to shoulder . I learn quickly which proved a blessing . The children were put to work digging canals to make rice fields and planting rice in these fields . I learned to plant rice which is something I hadn ’ t done before . You need to learn quickly how to do it efficiently or you will stand out as a child of non-farmers . Death would be certain if they thought you were a city kid . The leaders were standing around watching the children work and looking to weed out the children of the enemy . continued on page 12
11