SON Em
Pseudonym: 2-TCCP-223
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Civil Party
Background and role
After April 1975, Son Em moved from Pursat province to Battambang province of the Northwest Zone, where he worked as a messenger delivering documents from the Zone to Office 870, the Central Office of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK).
1
He testified before the Trial Chamber as a civil party in Case 002/02 about the communication lines between local levels (district and sector) and superior levels (Party Centre and zone), misleading reports about food rations and the purges of cadres in the Northwest Zone.
2
Communication lines between local levels and superior levels
In his capacity as a messenger for the Northwest Zone, Son Em received and compiled reports from different sectors of that zone and transmitted them to Office 870.
3
The sector level reports were written manually each time when the zone committees invited sector committees to attend meetings.
4
The frequency of those meetings varied; sometimes every month, sometimes every three months and sometimes every six months.
5
During those meetings, issues like “building of the country and the defending of the country” were discussed, including the construction of irrigation systems and rice production.
6
After the meetings, Son Em typed the reports with a typewriter before sending them to Office 870.
7
When he sent a report to the central level, he was instructed to put the report in an envelope on which was written “from the Northwest Zone to the Standing Committee of Office 870”.
8
Chinese and Korean visitors came to the Northwest Zone in 1976 to help connect telephone lines to assist with their local affairs in the zone.
9
The Trial Chamber relied on Son Em’s testimony, among other evidence, in finding that the zone or sector level had access to telephone connections.
10
Misleading reports about food rations
Reports prepared at the sector level containing information about the situation in the cooperatives and districts indicated that the people received food rations of three times a day as per the plan set by the Party.
11
Yet in reality the people did not receive the food rations as outlined in those reports, because the rice yield could not be as the same as what was on the piece of paper.
12
“[Those] reports were deceitful because they were afraid that if they could not achieve the work quota as planned by the Party, as I knew then they would disappear, as they did not meet the quota. And the disappearance here means that they could not achieve the work quota as determined by the Party and for that reason, they would be considered as weak people or people who were inattentive to the work assigned by the Party.”
13
The Trial Chamber accepted Son Em’s evidence that some reports transmitted to the Northwest Zone and the Party Centre were deceitful, in particular with regard to information on the food shortages and the amount of food provided to people, as well as the progress made on the completion of work projects.
14
The Trial Chamber also accepted his explanation that these reports provided a picture of the local situation which was better than the truth, in order to show that local cadres were complying with the Centre’s policies and directions on food and work plans.
15
While accepting that the local cadres concealed some information in order to avoid punishment or other negative consequences, the Trial Chamber found that the zone and Centre were informed about the problematic situation in the zone.
16
Purges of cadres in the Northwest Zone
The purges of Northwest Zone cadres took place in two phases. First, from February or March 1977, lower-level cadres were removed, and then, in 1978, zone level cadres were purged and replaced with people from Southwest Zone.
17
Son Em’s uncle, Ruos Mao alias Say, member of the Northwest Zone Committee, was arrested after being accused of a traitor and sent to Tuol Sleng prison (known as S-21) on 26 June 1977 or 10 July 1977.
18
Son Em’s father, Chet, who was responsible for the industrial sector in Battambang, was arrested around the same time as Say.
19
Chea Huon alias Vanh, Secretary of Sector 1, was also arrested and sent to S-21 on 20 June 1977 after similar accusations.
Statement of harm
“Up to now, everything is beyond words. I do not know how to describe in words of my hardship. It is beyond imagination. This suffering is so overwhelming that I cannot accept it. I lived in peace, but then I was separated from my parents, siblings and relatives and I have nowhere to live and at this point in time, I have nothing. I don’t receive any education. I don’t have any plot of land so that I could live in and survive. I do not know whom I should talk to about what is inside my heart. I do not have anything else to add to what I have just spoken of since nothing can be described in words. At present, I live in a status which is more—which is lower than animals and that’s a result of what happened during this brutal regime in my country”.
21
Videos:
Videos
