HENG Lai Heang
Pseudonym: 2-TCCP-251
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Civil Party
Background and roles
Heng Lai Heang joined the revolution in 1971 in Kratie.
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From 1972, she worked at the commune level in Kratie
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and in 1976 she married her husband who worked for the public work and transport unit.
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After her husband’s arrest in 1978, she was accused of being linked to a traitor and sent to work at Samrang worksite in Kratie.
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She testified as a Civil Party before the Case 002/02 Trial Chamber on the CPK practice of forced marriage and the CPK’s policy to target and smash the Vietnamese.
The practice of forced marriage
The instruction to marry was relayed from the sector to lower level.
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The weddings for commune and district level cadres were organized at the sector level while the villager’s were arranged at the commune level.
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There was a principle to match people in a set of 5 to 15 couple per wedding ceremony.
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Unlike cadres’ marriages, base people may refuse to get married without “serious problem”.
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Parents were consulted,
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and sometimes weddings were organized following a parent’s proposal to the local chief to marry their children.
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On the basis of her testimony and others, the Trial Chamber found that while certain individuals may have been consulted on their marriage, the general practice was that individuals had no choice as to whether they would marry.
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On appeal, the Supreme Court Chamber held that the Trial Chamber did not err in the evaluation of Heng Lai Heang’s testimony, which “persuasively” described “the impact of the modalities by which marriages were arranged under DK and of the marriages themselves”;
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and explicitly referred to the policy of forced marriage and the climate of force and coercion.
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Heng Lai Heang’s forced marriage
Heng Lai Heang was arranged to marry at 25 years old,
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by the Sector Committee.
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She accepted the marriage because she felt frightened and concerned about her safety after having refused several times.
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She had no rights to refuse even though her supposed spouse was blind or a handicapped person.
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No one could escape from the marriage since the CPK instructed to marry.
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Her wedding ceremony was organized by the commune committee
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with the presence of district and commune cadres.
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The couple’s parents were present even though they did not participate in the decision making on the marriage.
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It was not conducted according to the Khmer tradition.
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The couples marched in front of the crowd and made a commitment to live together.
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Relying on her testimony and other evidence, the Trial Chamber found that in general, wedding ceremonies were not conducted according to Cambodian tradition;
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and parents and family members were usually not present.
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After the marriage, Heng Lai Heang was not monitored due to her position in the area.
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She remained silent, although she was not happy with her marriage and “did not get along well” with her husband.
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Any newlyweds who did not “get along with each other” (i.e. have sexual intercourse to consummate the marriage) were monitored by people “from within their own unit”, and called to be re-educated and/or reprimanded.
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She heard that some people committed suicide after they had been reprimanded.
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Couples lived together briefly before being separated to their respective worksites.
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Citing her testimony and other evidence, the Trial Chamber found that couples were commonly monitored to ensure that they had consummated their marriages.
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On appeal the Supreme Court Chamber upheld this finding that both men and women were subjected to a coercive environment in which consent was lacking.
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Treatment of the Vietnamese
There were two events she described which concerned the CPK’s treatment towards the Vietnamese. In 1973, the Vietnamese were sent back to their country in trucks;
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and after 1975 or “perhaps in early 1976”, when the Vietnamese troops intensified their attacks, the mechanism to counter them was set up in order to prevent them from colluding with the Vietnamese side.
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The policy was initiated at the sector level, and the instruction to identify Vietnamese people was disseminated to district level down to village level.
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The district level cadres came to educate people at commune level about the need to identify and target Vietnamese people.
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The remaining mixed-blood Vietnamese were smashed at security centres and within villages.
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Citing her testimony and other evidence, the Trial Chamber found that from 1975, the upper echelon ordered the identification of Vietnamese, lists and biographies were prepared by the lower echelons and then communicated back to the upper levels for further action,
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and a centrally-devised policy targeting the Vietnamese for adverse treatment existed in DK.
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People who were connected to the Vietnamese network or had a relationship with Vietnamese people were collected and taken away.
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If the mother was Vietnamese, her children and grandchildren were also arrested and smashed.
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Citing her testimony, the Trial Chamber found that CPK considered the Vietnamese ethnicity to be matrilineal.
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The Supreme Court Chamber upheld this finding considering that it was a CPK policy and that it demonstrates intentional targeting,
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which formed part of the basis for the genocide conviction.
Heng Lai Heang’s uncle was killed in 1977 with his Vietnamese wife and children.
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The Trial Chamber found that because it was unclear on the circumstances of her relatives’ deaths, it was not established that those people were killed on the basis of their Vietnamese ethnicity.
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Statement of suffering and her husband’s disappearance
Although she did not love her husband, after living together and providing warmth to one another, Heng Lai Heang was in shock after learning that he was arrested.
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She lost 37 family members and was forced to marry the man and to agree with the assignment by Angkar for her own safety and life.
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She said that:
“Personally, I constantly suffered. The husband whom was matched by Angkar was later on arrested and disappeared and I was accused of having linked to a traitor. And for that reason, […] I was forced to do all kinds of work since I just delivered my baby, and I was not given sufficient food to eat and I was under constant monitoring by Angkar […] I could not provide comfort to my beloved child. […] my child died. […] I hoped, Your Honours, would find me justice.”
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