BAY Sophany
Pseudonym: TCCP-4
Cases: Case 002/01
Category: Civil Party
Background and role
Bay Sophany was living in Phnom Penh and working as a teacher before the Khmer Rouge invaded the city on 17 April 1975.
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Her husband was a lieutenant-colonel and the youngest brother of Chumteav Kheng, the first wife of Lon Nol.
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Bay Sophany testified in Case 002/01 as a Civil Party about her experience during the invasion and evacuation of Phnom Penh, the treatment of evacuees, and the death of her children.
Invasion of Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975
On 17 April 1975, Khmer Rouge soldiers entered Phnom Penh, where they walked through the streets armed and dressed in black uniforms.
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They had stern expressions on their faces and were firing their guns into the air.
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Khmer Rouge soldiers warned the population that they had to leave Phnom Penh immediately in order to be protected against aerial bombardment by the United States.
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People were told that they would only need to leave Phnom Penh for three days.
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Bay Sophany fled Phnom Penh because she believed she would be killed by Khmer Rouge soldiers if they entered her house and saw photographs of her husband in his military uniforms.
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She therefore left her home carrying her three children and a bag that contained clothes for her children, milk, and bottles.
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The Trial Chamber cited Bay Sophany’s testimony in finding that Khmer Rouge troops were commonly identified as wearing black pants and shirts and being heavily armed.
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The Trial Chamber also relied on Bay Sophany’s evidence, in addition to other evidence, in finding that Khmer Rouge soldiers told the local population that they were being evacuated to protect them against anticipated further aerial bombardments by the United States, and that they only needed to evacuate for three or more days, after which they could return home.
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March out of Phnom Penh
The Khmer Rouge directed Bay Sophany to go to Kbal Thnal and Chbar Ampov.
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The streets were very crowded during the evacuation, and it took them several days to leave Phnom Penh.
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Bay Sophany and her children, along with other travellers, stopped and rested at empty houses that belonged to Chinese families along the way.
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Bay Sophany saw dead bodies during the march including those of Lon Nol soldiers, elderly people, children, and pregnant women.
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She also saw people with disabilities walking along the road, some of whom were carrying oxygen tanks and had oxygen tubing in their noses.
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The Trial Chamber cited Bay Sophany’s testimony in finding that: (i) the streets were so crowded during the evacuation that it was difficult to move;
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(ii) evacuees were forced to improvise makeshift accommodation along the way and sometimes used abandoned houses;
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and (iii) dead bodies were identified as either Khmer Republic soldiers or as civilians, both young and old.
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Treatment of evacuees
When Bay Sophany reached Traeuy Sla, she and her children took refuge in a house of the base people, who had pity for them and provided them food.
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However, Khmer Rouge soldiers reprimanded the base people and instructed them to stop giving food to Bay Sophany and her children.
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Bay Sophany and her children were treated as belonging to a distinct social class and were chased far away from the base people to Traeuy Sla village.
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She then built a shelter for her and her children out of palm leaves.
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The Trial Chamber mentioned Bay Sophany’s account of how Khmer Rouge soldiers reprimanded the base people for giving her and her family food when finding that well before 17 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge had been fomenting resentment towards city people.
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The Trial Chamber also summarized Bay Sophany’s testimony that she and her children built a shelter out of palm tree leaves and tree branches after they were chased to the outskirts of Traeuy Sla village when finding that evacuees were forced to improvise makeshift accommodation along the way.
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Death of children
During the march out of Phnom Penh, Bay Sophany’s daughter and young baby became sick after being soaked by rain and exposed to extreme heat during the day.
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Her baby’s condition eventually worsened and she began suffering from dysentery and vomiting.
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Bay Sophany desperately sought medical treatment for her baby.
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However, the baby immediately had a seizure and died after the medic they visited injected an unknown substance into the baby’s head.
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After this, Bay Sophany buried her baby in a nearby forest.
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Bay Sophany’s son, Paul, also died when he became sick and she had no medicine or food to give him.
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She believes that he died due to starvation.
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Bay Sophany buried him by herself at the foothill of Chisor Mountain.
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Shortly after Paul’s death, her only remaining child became sick and died at the age of five.
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The Trial Chamber recalled Bay Sophany’s description of how her daughter immediately had a seizure and died after the medic they visited injected something into her daughter’s head when finding that children succumbed to hunger and various illnesses contracted throughout the journey from Phnom Penh.
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Statements of Suffering
On the death of her baby:
“I saw a male soldier and I was told that he was the medic, I begged that military medic asking him to save my children. I told him that my children got fever and dysentery and would not take anything. The medic asked me to bring along my children and there were a few beds, and I was asked to put my young baby on the bed. Then he came back with some kind of medicine and he injected my baby on the skin on top of the skull. I did not dare ask what it was. Upon the time he took away the needle, my youngest child got seizures and passed away. I cried. That was the first time that I witnessed such a tragedy in my life. I packed my baby and we all cried. In the afternoon I carried the dead body of my youngest daughter to bury in the forest nearby. I carried the dead body to the forest nearby and then I buried her myself. There were only two people help me dig the pit, and I put the dead body in the pit. And I put a wooden post on the grave so that I could recognize it later on. At that time, I was very confused, I was in a state of confusion, I could not do anything, I became very forgetful. And since then the Khmer Rouge soldiers made me to work extremely hard from morning till night.”
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On the treatment of her son by Khmer Rouge soldiers:
“Then the Khmer Rouge soldier told me that he would not kill my son but he had to threaten him so that he would not follow me to work. Then one of the other soldiers of the Khmer Rouge pointed the guns at my back, pushing me to go to work. I begged them for mercy. I begged them not to kill my son. If they'd killed my son they had better killed me, I told them at that time. And he took a scarf to tie my son's hand together. My son was screaming very hard at that time, but of course his tears did not come out. He put my son in a small pond, my son was still screaming. And as for my daughter, she did not want to follow me, but she wanted to follow her brother. So I had no choice but to go to work, so I had to continue walking. But while walking, I turned back to look at my son, what would happen to my son. Then when I looked at them and then my son and the daughter decided to run after me, and they - when they got to me he fell down, he could not say anything, he just fell down on my feet. And my daughter -my son could not say anything because he had lost all of his energy and words and then my daughter told me everything. And then I untied my son, then I saw the bleeding on the hands, I felt very, very sorrowful at that time. And since then my two children body got swollen and then they got very sick and the situation only got worse each day.”
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On the death of her son:
“And then on that night when we were so starving, we did not have anything to eat but the plant leaf, I cried very painfully. I hugged my two children. I did not know actually while that night I hug my son, I did not know when my son passed away. And the next morning when I got up, I saw my son, he was motionless, his body temperature got very cold and I did not know. I tried to open the eyes of my son, I tried to feel him on the nose, but when I realized that my son had already passed away. It was a very miserable thing in my life, we had nothing to eat. I believe that we die because of starvation.”
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On her own suffering after the death of her children:
“Then when my last daughter dies, I became almost insane, I could not do anything. This was the last time that I had nothing left for my life. I became almost insane, I did not talk to anybody; I cry myself. I wanted to die with my children because I had nothing left, I had nothing left. My children were all dead. After that miserable period, I became almost insane myself, and some people even called me "Neang Badacha", a sorrowful lady. This was the tragedy in our family. It was the consequence of the Khmer Rouge regime. They died because of the Khmer Rouge soldier. And I would like to appeal to the Court to find justice, and I would like everyone in this Court to understand my sorrowful life.”
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