UNG Sam Ean
Pseudonym: 2-TCW-805
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Witness
Ung Sam Ean testified in Case 002/02 about the work condition in a mobile unit in Kraham Ka village, Khmer Rouge regime’s stand toward Buddhism, the arrest and deportation of Vietnamese people and the war with Vietnam in 1978.
Background
Ung Sam Ean was born in Kraham Ka village, Chantrei commune, Romeas Haek district, Svay Rieng province.
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Between 1975 and 1979, she lived in her native village.
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During the Khmer Rouge period, she was assigned to do hard labour in the rice fields, and dug canals and dams in the eastern part of Svay Rieng province.
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She dug the dam for about one year and was asked to return to her home village when she got sick.
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In 1979, she was relocated to Takeo province for a week and then returned to her native village after the liberation.
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Work conditions in mobile unit
Ung Sam Ean testified that Kraham Ka village had a mobile unit composed of the so-called based people and new people from Phnom Penh during the Khmer regime.
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People in the mobile unit worked in the rice fields and dug canals and dams from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and had a break for one hour at 12 p.m. during which they held meetings, had lunch and a short rest before resuming their work from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
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They wore black uniforms given by Angkar and ate communally, mostly a bowl of food.
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They went to hospital for medical treatment when getting sick.
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There was no money in circulation.
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Khmer Rouge regime’s position toward Buddhism
Ung Sam Ean claimed that between 1975 and 1979, Buddhist monks were disrobed and sent to mobile units.
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Buddhist statues in pagodas were all destroyed.
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The Trial Chamber relied on Ung Sam Ean in finding that Buddhist monks were forcibly defrocked in the aftermath of 1975 to 1979 and that Buddha statutes were also destroyed.
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Arrest and deportation of Vietnamese people
Ung Sam Ean saw four to five Vietnamese families who lived a kilometre away from her village arrested in 1977 and taken away by the Khmer Rouge.
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Four or five children, aged 10 or 15, of these Vietnamese families were arrested and walked to a mobile unit based not far from the village.
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She did not see these children after 1979 and was unaware of the fate of the parents of these children.
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She later learned from the villagers living close to her house that some Vietnamese were chased out of the village and sent back to their country.
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The Trial Chamber relied on this evidence to find that the removal of Vietnamese took place in 1975 in Svay Rieng province.
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Some Vietnamese families were expelled from Svay Rieng to Vietnam.
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As result, there were no members of these Vietnamese families.
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War with Vietnam
Ung Sam Ean heard for several months the sound of shelling and grenades fired from the eastern direction by the Vietnamese army into Cambodia in 1978.
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Everyone in the mobile unit fled from the east to the west.
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However, they survived the bombardment and returned to and resumed their work at the mobile unit two or three day later, though there were some casualties in other mobile units
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. She lost her brother-in-law Has Phuon in the war with Vietnam in mid-1978.
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