KHOUY Muoy, alias KHAUNG Muoy
Pseudonym: 2-TCCP-259
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Civil Party
Background and role
Khouy Muoy is a farmer currently living in Srae Cham village, Prey Nob district, Kompot province.
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She provided testimony as a Civil Party in the Case 002/02 trial proceedings on harsh working conditions and relocations, the killing of her family members, the Communist Party of Kampuchea’s (“CPK”) policy to kill the Vietnamese (Yuon) and forced marriages at her worksite.
Working conditions and relocation
During 1975, Khouy Muoy and her parents were transferred from Koh Seh, her hometown, to Srae Cham, a school at Prey Nob, Kompot province.
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In 1976, she was separated from her parents and sent to a mobile unit in Prey Nob pagoda.
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During the Democratic Kampuchea regime (“Regime”), she also was sent to work at Ta Ney after she refused an arranged marriage and she was later moved to a mobile unit in Prey Nob until the end of the Regime.
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She was assigned to farming, digging canals and building dams.
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She was tasked to work hard and provided with insufficient food and drinking water.
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She was allowed to visit home once or twice per year briefly.
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The killing of Vietnamese people, including her family
In late 1978, Khouy Muoy was permitted to visit her parents and learned from a villager named Chrunh that her parents had been taken away and killed by the Khmer Rouge, along with thirteen other relatives who were also accused of being Vietnamese and Chinese descent.
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During the Regime, her brother, Khoung Keng, was placed at “Kong Serei” due to being disobedient.
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The word “Kong Serei” or “free unit” or “liberal unit”, meant an execution site.
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Her brother and other workers were shackled while working at there and inmates were often killed.
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After discovered the execution of her parents, she went to tell her brother
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and heard from a youth who worked there that her brother had been taken away and killed.
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The Trial Chamber found her testimony unclear on whether she witnessed those killings herself or not.
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Khouy Muoy knew four or five Vietnamese families who were evacuated from Koh Seh to Srae Cham and later were “smashed”.
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She heard from Voeun Sorn, who was in charge of a unit of elderly people in the cooperative, that the CPK had a policy that people of Vietnamese ethnicity needed to be executed.
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Arranged marriages
The head of Khouy Muoy’s mobile unit asked her to get married to a man, but she refused, citing her immaturity.
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Afterwards, she was assigned to Ta Ney along with four or five others to carry earth, and make baskets and thatch for rooves.
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The Trial Chamber cited her testimony, along with others, in explaining that when individuals refused to get married, they were moved to a different location.
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In her mobile unit at Prey Nob, she discovered that some workers were willing to get married while others were forced to get married.
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Four or five couples later refused to consummate their marriages and the Khmer Rouge found out; these people were then taken away and killed.
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Statement of suffering
“There is nothing that can exchange for the loss of my parents and siblings. Even if it's gold the size of a coconut, I would not accept it as exchange for my mother and father. They took away all our gold. It's such a great pain to be parentless.”
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