CHANG Srey Mom
Pseudonym: 2-TCW-834
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Witness
Background and role
Chang Srey Mom (or Cheang Sreimom) was a peasant living in Ruessei Srok village, Nhaeng Nhang commune from 1975 to 1977.
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She belonged to a New People women’s unit and was tasked with taking care of children.
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In 1977, she was forced to marry, and in 1978 she became pregnant.
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She testified as a witness before the Trial Chamber in Case 002/02 about the difficult working and living conditions for New People, re-education sessions, her forced marriage and forced consummation, her father’s execution at Kraing Ta Chan Security Centre in Tram Kak, and the elimination of Buddhism.
Living and working conditions in the women’s unit
Chang Srey Mom testified that cooperatives were established in 1970 with communal eating introduced the same year, until 1979.
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One unit for the three villages worked and ate together.
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Private ownership was abolished from 1970 to 1979.
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There were only Khmer people in Nhaeng Nhang commune.
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The daily food ratio was insufficient; but once a month the people received unlimited food,
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which caused some deaths from overeating.
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After her marriage in 1977, she lived in a cooperative where all their meals were communal and were distributed equally.
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People were often sick, but did not dare complain and stop working; they feared that if they complained, they would be accused of having mental illness.
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Medics cared for the chiefs of units, but discriminated against ordinary people.
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She testified that self-criticism meetings were held three times a month.
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There were also other meetings held at Angk Roka and Angk Roleay for both civilians and soldiers,
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where they were told to sacrifice themselves for Angkar,
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forget about the previous regime and Buddhism,
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and that the country will be reconstructed with plenty of resources, roads, and electricity.
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People were divided into Base People and New People.
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Each group worked and ate separately at different locations,
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and were not allowed to mix.
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Chang Srey Mom was assigned to the women’s New People unit
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because of her Chinese origin and her family’s history in trading.
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There was also a women’s Base People unit.
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People were further divided into regular and non-regular forces.
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At the women’s unit she was tasked with collecting vegetables and cooking.
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She was also a substitute teacher for children
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and taught them songs about labour, and how to spell and pronounce words.
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The 10-unit chiefs, children, and teachers ate separately.
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While pregnant in 1978, Chang Srey Mom was ordered to do heavy labour, which included collecting cow dung
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from 4 a.m. until 11 a.m. or 12 p.m., and again from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.
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At 6 p.m., they began working again.
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Her feet were swollen,
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but she was criticized at meetings as being sick, lazy, and mentally ill,
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and told that her feet would cease to be swollen if she worked hard enough.
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Chang Srey Mom testified that moral offenses were not committed frequently;
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there were two instances when men in a leadership positions were executed for making physical contact with a widow.
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Those who committed moral offences lost their leading position and were assigned to do hard labour.
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The Trial Chamber did not rely on her testimony that communal eating and cooperatives existed from around 1970, but concluded that “[c]ollectivisation and communal eating was introduced in Tram Kak district later on and expanded progressively along with the conversion of solidarity groups into cooperatives”.
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The Trial Chamber confirmed that she was ethnic Chinese, working in a candidate women’s unit, that New and Base People worked separately, and that a cooperative comprised of more than one village.
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Killing of her father & her forced marriage
Chang Srey Mom’s father was taken away and executed in 1977 because he spoke against the regime.
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She later found her father’s name in the Kraing Ta Chan security office records.
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Two days after the killing of her father, she was removed from the women’s unit and the commune chief, Boeun, matched her with her future husband, Tri Touch,
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based on the similarities in their biographies,
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i.e., Chinese ethnic background.
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She did not marry voluntarily and had no choice to refuse the marriage arrangement because she was the daughter of Angkar.
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Other women who disliked their chosen husband were asked to sacrifice their desires for Ankgar.
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She was afraid that if she refused, she would be considered as opposing the revolution and would be killed just like her father.
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No one refused the forced marriages.
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Their parents also did not dare to oppose Angkar’s decision.
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Chang Srey Mom and Tri Touch were called to attend a meeting, which turned out to be their marriage ceremony.
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The groom was unaware that he would be getting married.
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The ceremony lasted two hours.
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There were ten participants, including Boeun (the commune chief), Ol (chief of the women's unit), Chang Srey Mom’s mother, grandmother, and some other unit chiefs.
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Chang Srey Mom was asked to provide a statement that she got married voluntarily, and no one forced her into marriage.
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Angkar arranged a house for the first week of their marriage and asked the new couple to live together without quarrelling.
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On the first night, militiamen outside their home monitored whether they consummated the marriage.
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Due to the militiamen’s presence, she felt compelled to have sexual relations with her new husband.
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After the first week, the couple was allocated into different communes and could meet every 10 days in different locations.
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She testified that there were no guidelines from the Angkar on family building.
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For other forced marriages, if the militiamen reported that the couple did not consummate the marriage, they would be reported.
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When a woman refused to have sexual relations with her new husband, she would be criticized in the meetings and punished with hard labour.
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Chang Srey Mom testified that she was afraid of being punished with death instead of hard labour if she did not consummate her marriage, due to the fate of her father.
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On appeal, the Supreme Court Chamber upheld the Trial Chamber’s interpretation of her evidence when finding that “at least one instance of rape in the context of forced marriage at the Tram Kak Cooperatives”.
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The Chamber further recognized that each individual subject to the arranged marriage emphasised the context of coercion, and the harm suffered was clear.
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Arrests
In 1978 she witnessed the arrest of men who had worked in the Lon Nol regime as teachers, professors, students, senior police officers, and soldiers.
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Anyone, including the Base People, who had any relatives in senior positions in the previous regime, were arrested and executed.
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People were rounded up based on the biographies they provided.
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On one instance, when soldiers returned to look for Vietnamese, some New People lied about having Vietnamese relatives to escape the regime.
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However, instead of being sent to Vietnam, the New People were sent to the Kraing Ta Chan security centre and were executed.
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The Vietnamese that were evacuated on the first occasion were sent to a different direction.
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Buddhism in Tram Kak district
The Trial Chamber referred to Chang Srey Mom’s testimony that during a large meeting at Angk Raleay Pagoda attendees were instructed not to believe in Buddhism because it was merely a superstition and the Buddha was “only concrete”.
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Since 1970, monks were being ordered to disrobe and were placed in youth units.
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However, some Buddhist statutes remained.
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Her suffering
Due to the hard labour during her pregnancy, and the fact that she did not have any support from her family or her husband in that period, she attempted to poison herself, but survived.
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