NGET Chat
Pseudonym: 2-TCCP-1067
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Civil Party
Background and role
Nget Chat was a mobile unit worker in Pursat province’s Rumlech commune, where she was forced to remarry during the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) period from 1975 to 1979.
1
She testified before the Case 002/02 Trial Chamber as a Civil Party about her experience as a female victim of forced marriage and forced consummation.
2
Forced marriage
The Khmer Rouge took Nget Chat’s first husband away to be smashed in early August 1978.
3
Four or five days later, they forced her to remarry while she was still weeping for his disappearance.
4
After hearing the Khmer Rouge warn that she would be sent to the upper level if she refused the marriage, Nget Chat, who at the time was 20 years old, did not dare oppose a second marriage with a man almost twice her age.
5
The Nget Chat was married in a single wedding ceremony of 10 couples.
6
The Khmer Rouge arranged chairs for those couples to sit next to each other at their wedding, during which an Angkar person announced that they were not allowed to protest Angkar’s instructions on whoever was assigned to them as a husband or wife. During the wedding ceremony itself, the Khmer Rouge told her and her husband to consummate their marriage to produce as many as children for Angkar. None of Nget Chat’s relatives attended her wedding as they were not informed about it.
Forced consummation
After her wedding ceremony, Nget Chat and her new husband were given a small shelter to spend the night.
10
She recalled being monitored by militiamen when she was in the shelter with her new husband, whose wife was also smashed.
11
She and her new husband consulted with each other and agreed that they should not oppose consummating the marriage and should keep quiet after seeing young militiamen walking nearby and cases where people were taken away to be killed.
12
The Trial Chamber relied on Nget Chat’s testimony, among other evidence, in finding that: (i) weddings were organised throughout the entire period of the DK regime and were not conducted in accordance with Khmer tradition;
13
(ii) weddings were mostly held in the evening or at night time after people finished their work;
14
(iii) couples had to commit to producing children for Angkar to increase the population;
15
(iv) after the wedding ceremony, newlywed couples spent their first night or nights together, usually at their respective places the Khmer Rouge organised for the couples;
16
(v) the Khmer Rouge checked with newlyweds to ensure consummation of their marriage and the only way to avoid consummating a marriage was to hide the fact that consummation had not taken place;
17
and (vi) the experiences of forced marriage had a long-lasting impact on the victims, many of whom are still haunted by this to this day.
18
On appeal, Khieu Samphan argued that the Trial Chamber ignored the evidence of three Civil Parties, including Nget Chat, that it was not forced marriage, but other traumatic events that caused their greatest suffering.
19
The Supreme Court Chamber denied this ground, finding no error in the Trial Chamber’s decision not to consider this evidence.
20
It considered that there is no requirement, express or implied, that the harm caused by a charged conduct be the only harm experienced by that individual.
21
Statement of suffering
“I’d like to make a few comments. My husband was a Khmer Krom, who did not make any mistake, and he was sent for refashioning. He tried to achieve his work quota, but somehow, he was taken away and killed. I pitied -- I pitied my husband the most. Even last night when I recalled what happened, it seemed that he was still with me. It's like he's with me all the time. It's like he's still living with me.”
22
Videos
