KEO Chandara
Pseudonym: 2-TCW-964
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Witness
Role and background
Keo (or Kev) Chandara alias Yav
1
studied medicine in Cambodia,
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and until 1970, worked at the Calmette Hospital, the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, and at the Preah Ket Mealea Hospital.
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In 1970, he joined the resistance movement as a doctor.
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He was detained for 29 days at Kraing Ta Chan prison,
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and was later transferred to Wat Champa Pagoda and Baray commune.
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In Case 002/02, he testified on torture and executions at Kraing Ta Chan, working conditions, and the exhumation of graves.
1970 – early 1975 and Krabei Prey
Ta Mok was Yav’s neighbour while Ta Mok was still a monk - he was a close friend of Yav’s mother, and often visited her.
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Yav was arrested on 20 March 1975,
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and sent to Krabei Prey for five days,
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where he was interrogated.
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Some people were sent for further interrogation to Kraing Ta Chan
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(like he was
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). Others that were found guilty of “real” offences were immediately executed.
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Kraing Ta Chan prison (March-April 1975)
Upon arrival, Yav was shocked to learn that he was to be detained
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– he had been told that he would teach his medical skills to other people.
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Yav spent 24 days at the prison,
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and was released at the end of April 1975, with Ta Mok’s help.
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Detention conditions
Yav saw around 40-45 prisoners in one building in dire conditions, shackled by their ankles to a bar on the floor.
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The building was surrounded by barbed wire, and there was no fence; Kraing Ta Chan was known as the prison with no walls
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with teenage guards.
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Yav was not shackled;
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he was ordered to assist 20 executions by dragging and burying the corpses of prisoners and digging pits.
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He also carried the urine and feces of the prisoners.
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Prisoners who were interrogated sat on the ground and the interrogator sat on a chair.
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Prisoners were asked to implicate each other and could not lie about their backgrounds.
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The Trial Chamber found that the close relationship between Yav and Ta Mok was “clearly established”,
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and relied on Yav’s evidence to find that the detention conditions were dire.
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Torture and executions
Interrogators tortured some prisoners to terrorise others.
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Yav witnessed the torture of three women from Srae Ambel, who had to take off their shirts. The Khmer Rouge pulled off their noses and earlobes with pincers, threw acid on them, and dragged them outside naked. The Khmer Rouge later fried and ate their livers.
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Yav also witnessed the torture of Siet, a woman from Ta Prem village who was part of the revolution movement.
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She was brought to the prison naked and ordered to sit on the ground.
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One interrogator used the pincers to pierce her nose, ear, cheek, and lip.
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As she was bleeding from her wounds, another interrogator poured sulphuric acid on her and she started screaming.
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Yav and 9 other prisoners were gathered around and forced to watch the torture; some of them fainted.
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The Khmer Rouge hooked the woman by her jaw and pulled her up with a string; they cut her throat and chest with a knife and took out her liver, heard and gallbladder.
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The prisoners who were watching were ordered to touch her liver and heart with their heads.
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The interrogators ordered the woman’s internal organs to be fried for them to eat.
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Yav and the others were ordered to watch the scene until the next morning.
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Yav witnessed 50 or more people executed daily, including some Khmer Rouge cadres and members of the 1970 revolutionary movement.
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After 5-10 prisoners disappeared, new ones were brought in; some were executed without being interrogated.
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Healthy newcomers were instructed to continue digging more pits.
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Some prisoners were executed upon arrival.
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He recalled seeing a woman enter the prison with a child and a new born baby, still bleeding from giving birth.
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She was immediately taken to the execution site: her two children were smashed against a tree and thrown into the pit, the mother fainted and was also executed.
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Four loudspeakers disguised the noise of executions.
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No one from the prison survived.
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The Trial Chamber found that the execution of the women and her children indicated a pattern of conduct at the prison,
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and that Yav’s testimony corroborated the practice of drying human gallbladders.
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Wat Champa Pagoda and Baray Commune (Tram Kak district)
Ta Mok arranged Yav’s release from the prison and took him to Hospital 22K,
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where he was asked to repair a radiography machine,
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and advise on medical equipment and medicine.
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After that, he was taken home.
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He saw Nuon Chea speak about Cambodia’s transformation into an agro-industrial country.
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He was transferred to the Wat Champa Pagoda, which became a Khmer Rouge office,
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and later to Baray commune in Roka Krau district.
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Ta Mok was the commune’s leader.
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Yav was part of a mobile unit, assigned to irrigate rice fields and repair pumps or provide lighting to worksites, despite his training as a medic.
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Ta Mok told him to become a poor peasant and forget about his social status, otherwise he would be sent to re-education.
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Everyone worked in the fields around the clock throughout the year.
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Ta Mok would come disguised to the worksites and beat the unit chiefs if they did not work.
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The Trial Chamber found that Champa Pagoda was a gathering point for thousands of evacuees who arrived to Tram Kak,
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and noted that the DK regime sent those with medical skills to perform manual labor to “tamper themselves”.
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