KHOEM Ngorn

Pseudonym: TCW-323

Cases: Case 002/01

Category: Witness

Background and role

Prior to 1975, Khoem Ngorn joined the revolutionary forces at the village level, and became a unit chief in Takeo province. When Takeo province was “liberated” in April 1975, the soldiers were transferred out of the province, and the civilian people were evacuated and led by other people. The witness was transferred to Phnom Penh in the same year and assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to accompany foreign guests. He gave evidence in Case 002/01 about his experience at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Working Session at House Number 7

After he arrived in Phnom Penh, Khoem Ngorn attended study sessions for a week and then was assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, House Number 7 (one of the premises of the Chinese Embassy) to accompany Chinese guests. There were working sessions which were led by Hong, the chief of the office or sometimes by his deputy, Phoeung, at House Number 7 in order to guide the witness and his colleagues to interact in a proper manner with the guests while accompanying them. For example, when he and his colleagues were taking Vietnamese guests to a restaurant, they were advised not to eat anything that was left behind by the guests. There were also self-criticism meetings in the office among all the Cambodian people about what he and his team should and should not do. For instance, they were not allowed to talk about politics while living with the guests.

Punishments while working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Khem Ngorn testified that while he was stationed at House Number 7 to accompany Chinese guests, one of his colleagues named Chreoung was arrested and sent to S-21 by Hong after he caused a car accident in which two people, one Cambodian and one Chinese, died and another person got injured. He was accused of not abiding by the law, betrayal and threatening the political stability of the country. Khem Ngorn testified that he himself was relocated to Takhmau for three months to grow vegetables after Phoeung accused him of misconduct when he was spotted chitchatting with some women. There, he met 20 others who had committed misconduct, from mobile units, the countryside and other ministries. After the witness was transferred back to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he did not talk much and was forced to write his biography again and again three times per day. He suspected that something might have happened to his family or relatives, and that was why he was asked to write his biography. He was also called to accompany foreign guests on their travel across Cambodia. For instance, he accompanied guests from the Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cuban and some other embassies, to Takeo Province. One day, when he was accompanying some guests to a place he couldn’t recall, along the way he was asked “whether the villagers ate porridge or rice”, and he merely nodded his head in response. He did not say anything when he was asked about the well-being of the local people as he was afraid that he would be in trouble.

Writing his biography

Khoem Ngorn was forced to write his biography and submit it to the Khmer Rouge before and during the regime, although he did not know much about how to write it. In his biography, he highlighted his social status as a poor peasant, his moral conduct of living with integrity, his conventional activities, and his lack of political affiliation with the enemy. He wrote what he was told to write without much understanding of the written information. He wanted to make an acceptable biography of himself because he was afraid that his relatives would be arrested and executed.

Terminology

The witness heard several key terms such as “Communist Party of Kampuchea” , “class struggle” , “a political line of the Communist Party of Kampuchea” , “liberation or liberated zones”, and did not know what they meant. As for “traitor and enemy”, the terms referred to spies or who were lazy or those who stole the cooperative's property such as potatoes. The term "Youth League" referred to the core forces of the movement.

Videos

Testimony
Date	Written record of proceedings	Transcript number
07/06/2012	E1/83	E1/83.1
11/06/2012	E1/84	E1/84.1

Relevant documents
Document title Khmer	Document title English	Document title French	Document D number	Document E3 number
កំណត់ហេតុនៃការស្តាប់ចម្លើយសាក្សី ខឹម ងន	Written record of interview of KHOEM Ngorn	Procès-verbal d’audition de KHOEM Ngorn	D280/18	E3/1647
សំដីរបស់ ខឹម ងន ជាបុគ្គលិកក្រសួងការបរទេស ដោយ ផេង ពង្សរាំស៊ី	DC-Cam Statement of KHOEM Ngon	Déclaration de KHOEM Ngon devant le DC-Cam	19.72	E3/1648