Mr. SOS Ponyamin

The Civil Party Mr. Sos Ponyamin, 61, described the treatment of the Chams during the Democratic Kampuchea regime. He explained how the Khmer Rouge forbade Chams to respect their religion. Chams were forced to eat pork and were forbidden to fast and pray. Mr. Sos also revealed that they were prohibited to use their own language and women were forced to cut their hair. He told that if they would have opposed any of these principles, then they would have been accused of being enemies of Angkar. Mr. Sos stated that people were arrested without any reasonable explanations. His cousin told him that there was a plan to arrest 80 Cham s, and Mr. Sos organized a revolt with two other people. He explained that after the crackdown of the revolt, the soldiers took the Chams out of the village and interrogated and tortured them.  He also described the working and living conditions at the worksite. He stated that the conditions were the same for Cham  and Khmer people, and that he saw many corpses, but he did not witness any executions. Mr. Sos lost seven of his relatives during Khmer Rouge regime.

 

  • Witness acronym :
    2-TCCP-244
  • Age at the time of testimony :
    61
  • Appeared as :
  • Cases : Case 002/02Case 002
  • Date(s) of testimony :

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