Cambodia & Story: The victims of forced evacuation by the Khmer Rouge

Once the Khmer Rouge had taken control of the cities in 1975, numerous acts of violence were committed when the populations were evacuated from their homes. It was noted that these forced evacuations caused human beings to suffer, both physically and mentally, and literally destroyed their fundamental values. A document proposed by the young volunteers of CamboCorps with our partner DC-Cam.

Yem Mony, Khmer Rouge survivor with CamboCorps volunteers

The victims of forced evictions by the Khmer Rouge were forced to leave their homes without any legal justification under national and international law. Because this crime, which almost all Khmer Rouge survivors witnessed or were victims of, was so obvious, it was easy for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) to sentence the two Khmer Rouge leaders, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, to life imprisonment for the first and second phases of the evacuation.

The Khmer Rouge carried out these forced transfers in three phases:

First phase: this took place as soon as they entered the cities on 17 April 1975, until the beginning or end of September 1975. The Khmer Rouge soldiers told the inhabitants, at gunpoint, that they had to leave for only three days in order to escape the bombing of the American B52s.

Second phase: from September 1975 to the end of 1977. The evacuees came from the central, south-western, western and eastern zones. They were sent to Siem Reap, Preah Vihear and the north-western zone, which included the provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Pursat. The population was ordered to move to areas where there was more food and fertile land.

Third phase: from the end of 1977 to the end of 1978. The movement concerned the inhabitants of the Eastern Zone at the time of the escalation of the war with Vietnam and the purge of cadres from the Eastern Zone. The displaced persons were Khmer Rouge cadres and soldiers, some accused of being traitors, bad elements and having links with the Vietnamese or the zone secretary Sao Phim, and others considered to be ‘new people’ who had been displaced from Phnom Penh and other cities. A considerable number from the provinces of Prey Veng and Svay Rieng were sent to Pursat or Battambang province.

There was a combination of means of transport until the last stage: lorries, ox carts, boats, trains or walking, the train seeming to be the preferred means of the Khmer Rouge for the evacuees of the second and third forced transfers to the provinces of Pursat, Battambang and Banteay Meanchey.

In one carriage, around a hundred people were packed in tightly together and, above all, there wasn't enough food and water. It has been reported that, due to the poor travelling conditions, many died during the journey.

Yem Mony, Khmer Rouge survivor

By Phon Samphors, CamboCorp of Kep province

Yem Mony, who is now 63, lives in the town of Serei Saophoan, in the province of Banteay Meanchey. At the end of 1974 and the beginning of 1975, he was in his twenties and lived in the village of Toul Krous, in the province of Battambang. When the Khmer Rouge took control of the country, he was ordered to leave his family and join what were known as the Great Units. He was sent to work on the construction of a dam in the Kamping Puoy basin, in the province of Battambang.

Missing his parents, he tried to leave to visit them, but was captured by the Khmer Rouge and sent to be killed with 30 other co-operative workers. The workers were killed by being ordered to throw themselves into a blazing fire alive. Mony managed to escape the flames and tried to flee. He was stabbed with a machete by a Khmer Rouge. Injured, he hid in a bush. The Khmer Rouge continued to fire, but did not hit him. So he managed to escape.

After escaping, he met up with his father and, in 1979, they both fled Battambang on foot to Banteay Meanchey. When they arrived, there was still a lot of shooting and bombing in the area.

Mony remembers seeing convoys coming from the east (the eastern zone) and being dropped off at Serei Saophoan station. He saw people during the day and the next day they had disappeared without a trace. He also saw Khmer Rouge soldiers taking four or five people into custody under a small staircase at Serei Saophoan station.

Today, Yem Mony can no longer use his right hand because of the injuries caused by the fire and the stab wound in the back inflicted by a Khmer Rouge soldier.

Hong Huy, Khmer Rouge survivor

By Him Srey Leung, Lao Mala, Nob Siek Yi, Oeung Sok, Phan Lina and Sreng Jingseng

Hong Huy was born on 15 September 1956 in the village of Bosbov, Srah Chik commune, in the province of Battambang - today, his village is part of the province of Banteay Meanchey.

On 17 April 1975, the Democratic Kampuchea regime evacuated the population, including Hong Huy's family of four, in three phases. During the first phase, he and his family were sent to Phnom Koun Damrei for a month, during which the Khmer Rouge, who he was told had killed the family of a friend, killed a man armed with a cane and a young girl. The most tragic events were these murders and the killing of a seven-year-old boy who was thrown against a palm tree by the Khmer Rouge, says Huy.

During the second phase, they were sent to Phnom Sres for three months and, during the third phase, to the commune of Trapaing Veng. These evacuations were carried out by ox cart and on foot. Around 1977, people were sent from these regions to the northwest. According to Huy, the people were taken by train to Serei Saophoan station in Banteay Meanchey province, then transported by tractor and other makeshift means to Trapaing Veng commune. Those who were forcibly taken by train from the provinces of Pursat and Battambang to the province of Banteay Meanchey had to feed themselves, which led to numerous deaths from starvation, in addition to forced labour. After a long journey, the evacuees, or new arrivals, ended up living in the same areas as the ‘old ones’ — as the Khmer Rouge called farmers and rural dwellers to differentiate them from city dwellers labelled ‘new’ — and worked according to the instructions of the Khmer Rouge, with children being tasked with cutting down trees and collecting cow dung from the fields to use as fertiliser for the cultivated land. The new and the old worked tirelessly and had little to eat. Many died of exhaustion and hunger.