CHAU Khim
Pseudonym: 2-TCCP-1050
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Civil Party
Brief background of Chau Seng and his return to Cambodia
Born in Kampuchea Krom,
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Chau Seng was a Cambodian prominent intellectual and internationally recognized politician.
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He held various high-level positions within Cambodia’s ministries of information, education and commerce during the 1960s.
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Chau Seng and Khieu Samphan, Democratic Kampuchea regime’s head of state, were close friends who studied in France and worked in the Ministry of Commerce.
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After his self-imposed exile in France due to his criticism of Lon Nol regime, Chau Seng returned to Cambodia on 19 December 1975 with other Khmer expatriates following an appeal from the Khmer Rouge for him to help rebuild the country after the fall of the regime on 17 April 1975.
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In July 1976, Angkar had him write a letter to his wife for her return to Cambodia.
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His detention and execution at S-21
Chau Seng’s expectation to help the Khmer Rouge restore the country went wrong.
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In July 1976, the Khmer Rouge sent him to Kampong Cham’s Suong district.
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before transferring him in February 1977 to Economics Office K-16 at Boeng Trabaek in Phnom Penh, where he was detained
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on accusation of being a traitor.
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In November 1977, Chau Seng was detained at S-21 under the name of Chen Suon.
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Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, then chief of S-21, instructed his assistant Mam Nai to interrogate Chau Seng.
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During his detention from November 1977 to February 1978, Chau Seng was forced to write his confession 12 times totalling 200 pages.
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After his tainted confession, Brother Number 2 Nuon Chea ordered Chau Seng to be smashed.
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Chau Kim lost four family members during the Khmer Rouge regime including his father Chau San and his two siblings Chau Sokh Yun and Neang Kimvan.
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Statement of suffering
“The main suffering that I received is the result of the loss of my father, who was 76 years old, who had high blood pressure and died. It was also compounded by intensive work and lack of food and treatment. He died in 1976 in Kampong Chrey. As for my two siblings, Chau Sokh Yun and Neang Kimvan, they were members of a mobile unit and I do not know where they died. They probably died in late 1976. For me and the family, the great loss of my older brother, Chau Seng, as well as my father, means the loss of core people in my family. We become poor. We lost hope. We lost our future, and we did not have someone in charge of our family. As for the nation, the loss of Chau Seng is the loss of an intellectual who loved the nation and who was an elite, a progressive person, who participated actively in the building of society during the Sangkum Reastr Niyum from 1956 to 1968.”
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