PECH Srey Phal
Pseudonym: TCCP-108
Cases: Case 002/01
Category: Civil Party
Pech Srey Phal is a civil party, daughter of a former Lon Nol colonel and wife of a military medic. During the Khmer Rouge regime, she was forced to move several times and experienced the loss of multiple relatives. Based on her testimony, the Trial Chamber found that conditions of life of the evacuees, throughout the movement of the population, were terrible.
Events before and on 17 April 1975 in Phnom Penh
Pech Srey Phal recalled that prior to April 1975 the situation in Phnom Penh was chaotic: evacuees arrived, the cost of living increased, and there were bombings.
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On 17 April 1975, she heard Khmer Rouge’s loudspeakers say that Phnom Penh was liberated, but that everyone had to leave for three days to avoid the American bombing and allow for the reorganization of the city.
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She recalled that anyone possessing military uniforms or weapons had to surrender them.
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At first, her family did not intend to leave. Her father, a spy for the Khmer Republic,
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and her husband, a military medic,
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were still at work. But when a Khmer Rouge soldier pushed them and threatened to shoot them, after seeing that anyone protesting was beaten,
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they left by car.
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Conditions of the evacuation
On the road, Pech Srey Phal saw armed Khmer Rouge escorting the crowd, beating people, and ordering to abandon anyone too weak to carry on.
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Requests to walk back were denied, threatening to kill anyone who dared.
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Dead bodies were abandoned.
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She recalled loudspeakers announcing that after three days former public servants would be allowed to return to Phnom Penh upon registration. Those who registered were ordered to separate from their families and not to proceed further.
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All evacuees had to abandon their belongings at checkpoints to avoid being accused as enemies.
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The Khmer Rouge did not supply food, water, or shelter, causing Pech Srey Phal’s three-month-old baby to die.
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The Trial Chamber found that “those evacuated experienced terrible conditions”,
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and that “children in particular succumbed to hunger and the various illnesses they contracted throughout the journey”.
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The Supreme Court Chamber affirmed the finding that conditions inflicted upon the evacuees had been a relevant factor in the deaths occurring during the evacuation.
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Treatment of public servants of the Khmer Republic and evacuees
Pech Srey Phal recalled that when her husband and father joined the family, the Khmer Rouge assigned them a house and a job in Prey Trab village.
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The Khmer Rouge convened a meeting asking all public servants of the Khmer Republic and intellectuals to register.
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Shortly after her cousin and uncle registered, they were boarded on a truck heading to Phnom Penh, never seen again.
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The Khmer Rouge ordered Pech’s family to drive their car to Phnom Penh, following that truck.
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On the road, the car stopped, and the Khmer Rouge instructed them to wait, but a man passed by and revealed that they would be killed, so they fled.
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Her grandmother died by a lake, presumably from shock. She and her husband separated from the others;
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she never saw her father again.
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The Supreme Court Chamber accepted that Pech Srey Phal did not know the fate of her relatives he separated from during the regime.
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When Pech Srey Phal and her husband reached her father-in-law’s village in Kampong Spei,
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they hid there for five days before revealing themselves to the Khmer Rouge as Phnom Penh evacuees.
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The Khmer Rouge escorted them and others to live on a mountain “to be refashioned and tempered”.
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There was no water, food, medicine, and no shelter. Many died.
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Movement of the population
After two months on the mountain, the Khmer Rouge transported them to Phnom Penh, and loaded them on a packed train to Kampong Chnnang.
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During the train ride, no food was provided. Some died from exhaustion; their bodies were thrown out by the soldiers.
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Later they were transferred to Pursat,
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where the food was inadequate and the workload heavy.
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When Pech Srey Phal was caught stealing rice, she was escorted to be executed, but a man interceded, saving her life.
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The Trial Chamber referred to Pech Srey Phal’s testimony in finding the lack of hygiene facilities on the train and during the movement of population. The Supreme Court accepted the Trial Chamber’s findings.
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Statement of suffering of Mrs. PECH SREY PHAL, Civil Party
I would like to take this opportunity to express my suffering that I suffered during the three years, eight months, 20-day period. I am privileged to make such a suffering before this Chamber today. During the regime, the three years, eight months regime, I lost everything and, instead, I was terrified, emotionally and physically and it still remains with me today, the crimes that devastated myself and my family and my entire nation and people. During the regime, my younger brother who was 14 years old and out of hunger he stole a pumpkin and he was smashed. That was an agony that I had to live with. My father, my younger siblings, although they were not killed -- not executed, they died as a result of hard work and lack of medicine. And what I cannot forget is that the female youths who live at Prohoas Kbal Cooperative, the 19 of them, they were raped each night. Those women were in a special unit. Nineteen of them were raped each night and on the twentieth night, which was the turn of my best friend, she told me of what happened, and as a woman who was raped by the chief of the cooperative or chief of the sector, that was a real agony. And in this regime that person would be prosecuted and convicted. Your Honours, the suffering, the agony could not go away; it remained with me. However, I urge the ECCC to give the collective reparation. Of course, we want collective reparation as we are the civil parties. However, we want it to be realized. There could be a stupa or there could be a medical centre to support he victims, to support the civil parties, and the stupa where we could celebrate the religious ceremony during the water festival or during the New Year so that we could find peace within ourselves. Another important point is that who commit a crime shall be punished. For that reason, I urge Mr. President to find justice, and not just for myself but for all the victims because I am also one of the victims. And please, try to find and to force those senior leaders and those most responsible to acknowledge the crimes that they committed during the period of three years and eight months, and that they acknowledge their plans to devastate the country, to engage in the mass killing of the people. And I urge Your Honour to punish them severely, so that it can be used as an example for the younger generation -- that no one will be spared when they commit a crime.
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