156

p Do Kuang

p Nhan Dan, February 3, 1979

p It Kimseng, a doctor and head of the department of hygiene, was an assistant to the minister of public health in the governments before Pol Pot came to power. He taught in a medical institute in Pnom Penh until April 17, 1975, when he, along with more than two million other residents, was moved out of the capital by the reactionary Pol Pot clique. He knows English and French fluently, is a good driver, has been to England, France and Canada. ... It is inconceivable that such a person could look so despirited after three-odd years of life in a “commune” set up by the Pol Pot regime. He was emaciated, with a darkened skin, like a walking skeleton. There was a dull, lacklustre look in his eyes and his shoulders protruded from under dark patched, baggy overalls. It Sunnara, his son, looks even more piteous—like a feeble old man at his twenty-odd years, a jaundiced face, dried up arms and legs.

p Once they heard that the city had been liberated, the father and son headed out barefooted and bareheaded from Takeo to Pnom Penh. When they were too exhausted to continue their journey, a vehicle belonging to the national revolutionary committee brought them to No. 265 on Tep Phon Street, where they had lived earlier. A dilapidated building, entangled in lianas, the backyard overgrown with grass. ... It Kimseng could see nothing familiar. Tears flowed down the father’s and son’s cheeks. It Kimseng recalled that, only two hours after they had taken the city, Pol Pot’s men 157 announced by megaphone that all the inhabitants should leave the city and marched them out at bayonet and riflepoint. They gave them three choices as exits: Takeo, Kampot and Kampong Spy. In the panic, members of It Kimseng’s family went off in different directions. His wife headed towards Kampot, and has not been heard of since. He and his son were hurried off to the “commune” in Takeo, but they lived and worked in different places. For all these years they had to hide the fact that they were a doctor and a medical student, for fear of death. In the camp where the father lived, intellectuals were exterminated when they were discovered; the pretext was that the society “of the new type" did not need an intellegentsia at all. With his own eyes he witnessed barbarous reprisals against students, teachers, doctors, engineers, technicians, journalists and even singers and dancers. Some fifty doctors whom It Kimseng knew or worked with in Pnom Penh were killed.

p It Kimseng was put on the work crew planting vegetables and grazing cattle. It Sunnara was on the ploughing team and for a while grazed cattle like his father. For several hours they would talk about their horrible and degrading life in the “commune”, which was, in effect, a labour camp. A tenhour work day, even longer on moon-lit nights. A bowl of gruel for lunch. Skilly ten months a year and boiled rice only two. The authorities announced that clothes would be issued annually, but for over three years the father and son had nothing to wear but headcloths and faded, patched overalls.

p It was impossible to live in their former house. How could one live in an empty building overgrown with grass? After walking sadly around their old home and recalling their former happy life there they were driven in a revolutionary administration car to another district where they were provided with temporary housing. Here there was lighting and the plumbing worked; they were given food. The personnel man responsible for this district calmed It Kimseng and It Sunnara down and advised them to rest here and get their strength back. Once all the buildings are back in ordei, the revolutionary administration will provide all the necessary 158 conditions and give the people help to return to their home and get their lives back to normal as soon as possible.

p The revolution has a great deal of work to do after the liberation of Pnom Penh and the entire country, yet the capital’s authorities are trying to provide food, clothing, medicines and housing to everyone returning from the labour camps. Like other families, It Kimseng and It Sunnara were issued food, footwear and medicine.

p The Saryon family lives with them in a spacious house. The children are dressed in new, colourful clothing, and the mother is wearing a new dress too. She proudly states that these clothes were sewn from material issued by the revolutionary authorities only a few days after the family had returned to Pnom Penh. There was a sewing machine in the house, and since she knew how to sew, she immediately set to cutting patterns. After returning to her home town she was prepared to do any kind of work to contribute to rebuilding the capital.

p The mother of the Saryon household laughs heartily: “This is the first time in over three years that I have laughed!" She says of the nightmares she lived through: “On the morning of April 17, 1975, my family went out for a stroll: today, after our return, there are only four of us left. My husband, daughter, son, son-in-law and eighteen-month-old grandson.. .. The Pol Pot gang smashed the heads of all of them or killed them some other way.” The bodies of her husband and children were thrown into a ditch together with the corpses of 40 or 50 other people. In Takeo, in the area of the village of Long Ria of District 107, where many families who did forced labour are buried, there are several dozen such graves. Human bodies lie under only a thin layer of earth. There used to be 500-600 men in the village; since the reprisals by the authorities only three or four are left. After exterminating the men, the authorities started on the women. Before Takeo was liberated, all the town’s women aged 18 to 30 were marched out to trucks and hauled off to another area, where they were raped and then killed. Saryon says: “There is no doubt, that the Pol Pot clique 159 betrayed its country and people and did its best to exterminate them.”

p Her voice comes to life when she talks about how the population of the “commune” and adjacent villages rose up, together with revolutionary army to fight for the liberation of Takeo. People asked for weapons, showed the soldiers roads, discovered traitors and supplied the fighting men with food and water. The population stood guard and helped to maintain security and public order. .. . When they learned that the Saryon family wanted to return to Pnom Penh, where they had lived before, the revolutionary authorities allocated a car to take them.

p Life is returning to normal. Basins, pots, teapots, towels, footwear and clothing have appeared in every home. The kerchiefs so popular with Kampucheans have not been forgotten either.

The family nucleus of Kampuchean society is reforming.