Case 002 Witnesses, experts and Civil Parties

Preap Sokhoeum was born in 1951 in Kampong Cham province. She had two daughters. She was working on a cotton plantation in 1975 when she was called to be married. After the marriage she found only sadness. She did not know her husband before. Both were weeping because they wanted their parents here. He tried to have sex with her but she told him because the marriage hadn’t been held with the proper customs she did
not acknowledge it and therefore did not allow him to touch her. She knew they were being watched. Eventually he raped her. She became pregnant after that. Her husband came to see her one day and she
didn’t even remember his face. He raped her again, telling her that it was Angkar’s instructions and it would kill them both if they didn’t have sex. He later disappeared, and she was told her baby would be killed because her husband was a traitor. She knew several couples who had refused to consummate their marriage or get married, and they were all disappeared. Her siblings were all killed because one of them had been a Lon Nol soldier. She asserted that the KR completely eliminated the feeling of family relationship.

The expert was born in 1949. He is an Australian researcher, writer and teacher in international politics and history. He has studied and written on the relations between Vietnam and Cambodia during this period. He tried to understand why these two former allies country came into a military conflict.

To him, it was different Communists who misunderstood the situation. He explained that the behavior of the Vietnamese was aimed at creating one space with one ethnicity, called Indochina Federation. He added that imperialism was deeply rooted in the Vietnamese elite. The Vietnamese always wanted to have control in Cambodia, but Pol Pot’s policies gave them an apparent license to intervene and eliminate Cambodia’s independence. The Vietnamese used Cambodians who retreated to Vietnam in 1954 to re-infiltrate in order to control Cambodian communism. He said that the concept of the “enemy” was very central to these movements. According to him as Stalin had created a construct in which his rivals were seen as agent of foreign powers, Pol Pot created a narrative in which the enemies from within were KTB or CIA agents. It was a period of paranoia and personality cults. He described DK as a conspiratorial organization. Morris recounted that in April 1977, DK attacked a Vietnamese village causing a substantial number of civilian casualties. He said it was irrational, because Cambodia was much weaker than Vietnam. Indeed there was a disparity of strength between both sides.

The purges and terror campaigns that took place after 1975 were directed against loyal members of the KR. This showed, he said, paranoia and weakness in relation to the conflict with Vietnam. KR were against the Soviet Union and sympathetic to China until 1976.

2-TCW-1037 was living in the forest until​ 1975 because of the chaos faced by the country. He remained in the revolution until 1975.

Between 1970 and 1975 he joined the army to liberate the nation. After that, he was in charge of economics and logistics in a zone, especially distribution of food and ammunitions
to the battlefield. He remembered and confirmed the existence of many people, cadres and locations names. The leaders in the Military Zone were accused of having connections with CIA. He heard that Ruos
Nhim and Ta Nhim planned to attack Pol Pot. They were killed with all participants for that. During this period he confirmed their transfer to other places with more difficult living conditions. He spoke about high-level cadres who were sent to Phnom Penh. It was a part of the general policy of purges. Those who were linked to the Military Zone were accused of being traitors. He said that people monitored each other under Democratic Kampuchea. He spoke about the purges policy against the Vietnamese and explained that measures against them were harder than those against Cham. Cham people mostly survived if they obeyed, but Vietnamese
were killed most of the time. Finally he spoke about the marriages. He explained that some were forced to get married and​ others could marry the one they wanted. He was arranged to get married on 31 December 1975 with thirty others couples. 

After the ceremony, they were all dispersed to various locations – it was a rule that
wife and husband stayed together during three days, to consummate their weddings after that they were separated and sent to different worksites. If they wanted to see each other they needed permission.

Cheal Choeun was born in 1952 in Pursat village. He is a rice farmer.

He was a Khmer Rouge soldier until 1975. After that he went to Battambang because of the bad living conditions. He testified on the massacre of Lon Nol soldiers, persecution of Buddhists and forced marriage. He gave some leaders’ names and affirmed that he heard about Ruos Nhim. He never heard anything about rebellion project, just about military training without knowing about its purpose. He accompanied former Lon Nol soldiers to Samdech immediately after the victory of Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh. The witness stated that 50 Lon Nol soldiers were transported. He never knew what happened to their bodies after he seen their death by shot. He was asked to fire the gun but he was too shaken. Before this period, he was studying to become a monk but in 1975 he left the monkhood.

The Khmer Rouge instructed them to work in the rice fields and plant cotton. He was married during that time under the order of his direct supervisor Pheap.

Pen Sochan was born in Pursart Province. She was living with her parents before she was transferred to another village.

She got married around 15 or 16 years old with 12 other couples while she was in a mobile unit, where she made fertilizer. She refused her unit chief’s requests, who asked her if she was mature because she was already on the list of Comrade Oeun. None of her relatives were there. Comrade Oeun said that to get married and produce children were Angkar’s instructions. She said that they built a floor of bamboo trees which they partitioned into twelve rooms for the twelve couples. She was threatened to death if she didn’t consummate her wedding by the third night. They were monitored by militiamen who told her husband to rape and beat her, so he did. Militiamen always reminded them that they had to produce children for Angkar. She was young and afraid. She suffered a lot and her mother couldn’t help her.

She got married a second time to a soldier who had many others wives. She was beaten and raped by him also and had six children with him. She stated that her life was painful. She suffered a lot physically and psychologically because she lost many members of her family and was forced to get married.

The Australian-American academic Peg LeVine was born in 1952. She is a registered clinical psychologist, an anthropologist with a focus on medical anthropology, a professor and a research affiliate at the Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research in Los Angeles.

She learned about the Cambodian conflict in 1980 when she was working in a mental health center, where many Cambodian refugees were. She began her research in 1997 on the specific topic of weddings under the Democratic Kampuchea. She explained that it was a really hard work to stay neutral with that kind of topic. For  example, before the expression “forced marriage” was used before the Courts, no one said anything  about it but preferred the expression “arranged marriage.” The expert chose to use the expression “conscripted marriage.” She explained that the marriages were thought of as if they were providing a service to the future of their country. For her, it was to serve Angkar, a question of loyalty. The definition of forced marriage in a legal view is that one under violence or threat of violence and when people get married not with their free will. Her investigations showed that only fewer than ten per cent were threatened to death if they didn’t accept to marry someone. She stated that perception of weddings depended on perception of Angkar. She stated that the ceremony was different according to leaders. Lack of rituals disturbed many people.

Regarding the consummation of marriage, she said that no couple stated that they were forced to do it or monitored, it was expected that people would consummate their marriage in the first three days. She pointed out that we expect the same from couples in every country. She said that she couldn’t define forced marriage but she rejected using this to define marriages under Khmer Rouge. She explained that she established the authenticity of weddings through of the perception of people.

2-TCW-1036 joined the Revolution in 1972. He began as a messenger, then he was transferred and  imprisoned in 1977.

He was messenger for Ruos Nhim, but was not in his closest circle – he only accompanied him to distant places. The witness heard that Ruos Nhim was arrested at the end of 1978. He remembered vaguely that he accompanied him to the Vietnamese border in 1977, and mentioned a truck
with uniforms there. He didn’t see any Vietnamese there but apparently they collected uniforms from Vietnam. They often changed their locations.

He couldn’t remember many things or gave different statements than previous ones. According to him, under the KR “there were no problems.”

Sem Om joined the Revolution in 1973 in the Division 1 and Battalion 502.

First he was in charge of the economic affairs, delivering rice to soldiers. After when he was at the Vietnamese border he was in charge of the radio communication system. He heard on the radio the order given to leave and go to protect their family. He learned that Comrad Oeun planned to agitate people. They stocked equipment and arranged uniforms to topple Pol Pot. Oeun was arrested like many others chiefs and cadres. They were in a constant fear at this time. He heard some Khmer voices spoke about joining the Vietnamese side to topple Pol Pot. Also he stated that soldiers from the East Zone were arrested and killed, their wives too. When he worked as a messenger for Him Horn he heard about a plan to topple Pol Pot. Horn was accused of being a traitor and committed suicide. He stated that there was a special unit in charge of purging.

He spoke about marriages and explained that cadres and disabled people were the only ones to get married. Marriage for combatants was prohibited. The main aim of those marriage was to produce children for Angkar.

HENG Lai Heang was born in 1950 in Kratie province, where she and her family lived in a communal farming community.

In 1971, she joined the revolutionary movement when men from the jungle urged them to join to liberate the country. She was on a local committee, so she was responsible for disseminating information about the revolution to the Base People in all the villages. During this period she witnessed many ceremonies and selection for marriage. In 1976, her supervisors in the committee of Sector 505 in the Northeast Zone arranged her marriage. She refused many times but when they used the word “stubborn” to describe her, she agreed to the arrangement for her safety. For her it was a resistance against this new power if she didn’t accept. She became pregnant a year after her wedding, but her husband was arrested in 1978 and she was accused of being linked to a traitor. He was sent to a study session and never returned. She was removed to a work site for wives of traitors in Kratie province.

Regarding the policy against Vietnamese, she stated that this policy was initiated at the local level at the beginning and was disseminated to the district after. This was established because of the conflict between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese. All of them, even half-blood,
were smashed. This was the case of her uncle’s family.

Mom Vun was born in 1948 in Siem Reap province, where she lived before 1975. Her husband was Tan Him.

She was assigned to harvest rice when her child was young; when her child died she was assigned to build dykes. Her older siblings were accused of being traitors and killed. Her mother died from sickness. She was
forced to re-marry within a few months of her husband’s disappearance in 1975. Two days before her marriage she was held at gunpoint and raped by five men, one by one. She and her husband didn’t like each other but they felt they had no choice but to get married or be killed. She didn’t inform her family of the wedding because it wasn’t done in the traditional way. Although they tried to avoid consummating the marriage, militiamen held torches on them and forced her husband’s penis into her.

She separated from her husband in 1984. At a meeting in 1976 she saw Nuon Chea speak.

Noem Oem alias Nhim Kim Sreang was born in 1953. He was the chief of the photography unit at S-21. He  stated that spent time in prison for getting caught in a fight. According to the witness, he personally took between 4000-5000 photographs. He stated that Nhem En had no special skill in photography, contrary to 
the latter’s statement. Mr. Sreang’s main role was tot ake photos and develop the film. He said there was no set system for organizing the photos of prisoners. This changed in 1978 at request of Duch but it still wasn’t a regular system. He did not see many children.

She was an expert witness testifying on forced marriage during the Khmer Rouge period. She first became interested in how the Khmer Rouge impacted women during her undergrad, and has conducted research on gender and women, particularly forced marriage, in Cambodia since 2006.

Her research focused on the period prior to the KR and during. Marriage, she found, was a communal and family matter in which males had more decision power and females had almost none. Although she acknowledged women were sometimes consulted during the Khmer Rouge period, she did not think genuine consent could be given. As well as this, before the Khmer Rouge marriage was organized by families and no interaction with the authorities was needed – this changed under the KR. She did not have enough evidence to confirm whether or not there was a top-down policy to organize forced marriages.

The greatest harm of forced marriages, she said, was the destruction of the safety net inherent in marriages: men and women lost the protection of their families because they were separated from both their families and their new spouses. The mother of the bride suffered heavily because it was her responsibility to organize the marriage and she was unable to do so.

Nop Ngim was a trusted Khmer Rouge cadre who was sent from the Southwest to the Northwest zone in 1978 by Ta Mok. There, Ta Mok appointed her to a powerful position, Deputy Secretary of Samlaut District, but still she was forced by Mok, a member of the Standing Committee, to marry a handicapped soldier. Nop Ngim testified that there were 38 couples that forced to marry in the same ceremony. 

Nop Ngim never testified that she had been explicitly warned of the consequences of refusal. But in a regime where breaking a spoon, failing to follow instructions, or criticizing conditions could lead to execution, even a relatively high-ranking cadre dared not refuse, believing her survival depended upon accepting the regime's decision. 

Ms. PHAN Him didn’t remember her date of birth, but she is 60 years old. She was born in Bakrong village in Kampong Cham province, she married Kung Choeun and had six children. 

In 1975 she was in the medical unit, carrying soldiers off the battlefield. In May 1975, she worked in a warehouse and after that she worked in logistics support. In 1976 she became a teacher and was located in Tompong. She began to teach to children between 3 and 12 years old. She was told to teach them to be on time, to be vigilant about enemies and the discipline of Angkar. The children’s parents didn’t come to visit them because Angkar was their parents. In  1977 she was in charge of exporting goods overseas. One day, the female chief of her section came to say her that someone had proposed to marry her. She responded that she was too young and she wanted to work and her chief responded she must respect Angkar. She learned that her husband made the proposal because he had to get marry and he had heard her name once. She was married in 1978. She was authorized to rest the day before her weddings, and they gave her clothes and some staff to clean herself. There were twenty one couples for the same ceremony.

This was arranged by their respective unit chiefs, they couldn’t choose their partner, only the men could propose an engagement. They didn’t receive any instructions after the wedding, they didn’t consume their marriage before two weeks to a month. They began to talk together and finally started to have sexual relations. They had children together.

Ms. CHEA Dieb was born in April 1954 in Pramat Dei village, Kampong Cham province. She is a rice farmer  and has four children. She joined the army in 1974 and followed Comrades Han and Hean in the mobile unit incharge of transporting wounded soldiers from the battlefield.

Before the fall of Phnom Penh, they were near the city around Wat Nom and she transported the munitions, bodies, the properties found, the spoils of war stocked in warehouse and she also participated in fights. After, she was transferred to a textile unit where they were required to produce hundred skirts and shirts per day. In 1978, she was sent to the O’Russey textile unit because she was suspected to be connected to leaders of the former regime. She stated that she saw Khieu Samphan twice. During the meeting at Wat Long, this one said women had to work and marry a man. Particularly he spoke to young people to “produce” children to protect the country. He said that 19-25 and 30-35 years old were the age ranges to get married. They organized marriages, but she refused because she wanted to serve the regime. However, the second time she couldn’t refuse and she followed the counsel of Angkar. There were twelve couples. The men were handicapped; for example hers had a problem at his leg. He was 26 and she was 19. They pronounced an engagement and after that they were divided into four groups. They were monitored and if they wanted to be separated or didn’t consume their marriages they were sent to reeducation. She gave the example of a man who didn’t like women but men and was transferred to be reeducated. After this, he consummated his wedding and his wife was pregnant. According to her, she was forced to get married. 

She spoke about her suffering, her lost and the difficulty to talk about it today. She was scared all the time, because just being accused of something was sufficient to send them in re-education or to be killed.

The Civil Party was born in 1956 in Trapeang Kak village, Takeo province. He began to learn art when he joined the Communist Party of Kampuchea in 1970 and after he joined the army.

He was assigned to be a group chief and a card-carrying member of the Party. He was promoted to chief of a company but was injured in the battlefield and sent to a handicapped soldier compound in Sector 13 in mid-1975, then  transferred in a guarded handicapped zone in the southwest. During his rest he saw handicapped men forced to get  married  with some single women from Kampot province for patriotic duty. They were old and handicapped so the Khmer Rouge felt they should arrange marriage for them according to Ta Mok's policy. He was in charge of the district office so he was responsible for biographies of men and women to arrange their marriages and choose  who should marry whom. He explained that there were always 20-30 couples to get married at the same time. He said people could refuse this arrangement but no one did because they were too afraid of getting killed. He tried to refuse to get married but the third time he accepted because the woman was a cousin of his chief Phoan and it was a culture of fear during the regime. There were three couples to get married at the same time. According to him, it was not forced marriage, rather a sector plan on the communist party of Democratic Kampuchea. He was informed of this plan by his chief and it was disseminated throughout the country. Women and men with a certain age had to get married, it became a rule, and women had to be younger than men of three to five years.

He chose to use the notion of arranged marriage. He asked the  Courts to note his suffering and that the lower ranks should be tried at the ECCC because they altered and ruined the party line according to him.

Before 1975, the Civil Party was a student​ and a police officer.

He explained that at the beginning Khmer Rouge soldiers were very nice and nobody suspected anything. He was finally authorized to go to Kampot but he lived in bad conditions and he finished in the commune hospital. After that, he was transferred to District 107 for working in a special unit to carry heavy baskets of earth. In the middle of 1978, the Civil Party was forced to get married because he was considered as a hard worker. He finally accepted after asking if he could get married with the woman he was engaged with but her brother was killed by the Khmer Rouge. The chief of the unit told they were sons and daughters of Angkar and for that reason they could not refuse the marriage. CP stated that some people were allowed to choose who they married, but only men and only if their biographies were compatible. One night, the chiefs called 50 men and 50 women. Each couple had to pronounce an official vow. He didn’t know his future wife. After the ceremony they continued to work but at night they had to consummate their wedding. However, they couldn’t because they were exhausted, skinny and without sexual feelings. 

He said they had to pretend that they loved each other like husband and wife, and were monitored to see if they had sex. He said those ceremonies were different than traditional ones because they didn’t ask their parents, who were not here during the wedding, they didn’t know each other and they were threatened with death. For him, it was a really difficult period, like living in hell.

The Civil Party was born in 1940 in Koh Tang village, Tralach Commune, Takeo province. She is a rice worker field and a transgender. 

Her parents were killed during the Pol Pot regime. Although she was born as a man, before 1975 she had lived as a woman. During the Khmer Rouge era she became he, because she had to get married when she was evacuated from Son Nol Mountain, a re-education prison. When she was transferred a village in Bantay District, she tried to refuse to marry because her mother was in bad health and her family couldn’t be there for the ceremony. 107 couples were called to the same room without knowing what was happening. They had to choose each other in the dark. The Civil Party had talked with her wife-to-be to ask her to be able to recognize each other with the scarf. She said no one refused to get married because it was a psychologically tense situation. Some of her transgender friends decided to kill themselves or others were shot. The ceremony was not organized according to the Khmer tradition. She spoke also about soldiers who monitored them to know if they consumed their marriage. She and her wife had to drink a lot of alcohol to be able to do it, because the Civil Party wasn't attracted to women. They had to make a vow to Angkar, commit to marriage and produce children as Angkar required it to increase population and protect the country. After that they sent her to work and she never saw her wife and daughter again. The Civil Party also spoke about rooms of interviews, tools of torture and screams she heard. She lived in a lot of different places, most of the time in prison.

She said she had nothing to tell to the accused just how much he suffered because he lost everything: her family, how she was forced to get married, she was sexually abused, had physical injuries, eyesight is poor, right leg is handicapped because of the chains, etc.

The Civil Party lived with her family in the unit 7 at Ta Ong village, Ta Ong Commune in 1975.

After the fall of Phnom Penh she was transferred at district Chamkar Leu District of Kampong Cham province. She was married during the Lon Nol regime and had a child, but her husband was killed after he joined the Revolutionary army. In early 1978, she was married a second time when she arrived in Unit 7. The Civil Party said she was threatened because she already had a child and they told her that if she didn’t get married they would take him away from her. Moreover, the witness explained that she had a cousin who refused to get married and who was killed because of that. Therefore she did not protest There were 13 couples to get married at the same time as her. She described the ceremony: her parents weren’t there because she didn’t have the time to tell them about it, there was no traditional music or dancing or anything else. Her new husband was more than 20 years her senior. She didn’t like him and during their first night together she threw him away. This action led her in front of the chief of the section, Comrade Penh. The Civil Party explained
that during this meeting with Comrade Phan, he raped her because of her disobedience despite the policy of morality.

The witness told the Trial Chamber that after this, she consummated her marriage with her husband
because they were monitored by militiamen. Finally she had a child at the end of 1978. She said the living conditions were difficult, even she was pregnant she had to work hard and she couldn’t rest.

This witness has been interviewed during the investigation stages of other cases and international co-investigating judge requested the TC to refer him by speudonym (2-TCW-850) not his full name.

The Witness was in a connnune militia unit in Kandal Stung District from 1975-76 and a Member of the S'ang District Committee (Southwest Zone) from 1976-77.

He was sent to the Central Zone in 1977 as part of the purge of that Zone by Southwest forces, and appointed Baray District Secretary. He describes district committee meetings, the submission of reports to the sector level and the receipt of instructions from the upper echelon.

He also provides evidence regarding the 1st January Dam and Wat Baray Choan Dek security office. 

During the DK regime, SUOY Sav, served as a soldier in Division 1 later Division 310 the commander of which was Euan also spelled as Oeun. 

SUOY Sav stated that they were stationed at Tuol Kouk preparing to attack Pol Pot When the plot was exposed they went to farm paddies at Kab Srov in order to create a confusing trail and they would be sent back when it was safe. SUOY Sav used to be part of the forces that stood by to greet foreign visitors in Phnom Penh He said that among other foreigners the Vietnamese also came until the plot was compromised Then we started to stir up trouble with Vietnam. 

Later in 1978 SUOY Sav together with troops from the Southwest participated in the suppression of the uprising of the East Zone troops led by Sao Phim. 

Civil Party, My Savoeun, described the chaotic situation for East Zone soldiers from 1976 to 1978. Before Civil Party Mey Savoeun was sent to Pursat in 1978, the Civil Party was arrested and detained in Me Sang district (Prey Veng province) where he was forced to dig soil. The Civil Party was then arrested, while in military uniform at Kranhung pagoda and detained nearby. He was dragged behind a bicycle, beaten, and interrogated before being released. 

The Civil Party testified that others who confessed during their detention were killed. The Civil Party was again arrested with his mother in Svay Rieng province, but escaped detention in a prison because fighting with Vietnamese broke out. 

The Civil Party was a soldier in Koh Keo Commune, Lvea Em District in Kandal Province. 

He was attached to Unit 148 which was still at Koh Keo when the area was liberated. He was later transferred to Prey Veng  Province where he built canals, dyke systems and roads and worked in the rice fields. He said that Sao Phim, the Zone Secretary at the time, encouraged a rebellion in the East Zone and told forces to fight against theSouthwest soldiers. Airplanes dropped leaflets which “encouraged all people and forces as well as civil servants in the East Zone to surrender with the West and Southwest forces”. The leaflet said that they did not “betray thenation,” only the leaders, such as Sao Phim and his wife, had betrayed the country. He fled the battlefield and was arrested, narrowly escaping execution, before being sent to Prey Veng Province where he was assigned to a mobile unit. It was here that he was told that Angkar required them to marry.

He was married to a woman he did not know alongside sixty other couples. They were monitored by militiamen to ensure the marriage was consummated.

Mr. YUN Bin was born in 1955. He was sent to live in Kos Au Tanseng Island when the Khmer Rouge took power. Here he was assigned to build canals and dykes, clear the forests and transplant rice seedlings.

On 25 May 1978, he was called to go for a study session with nine other youths from several districts. He was tied with rope and taken by vehicle to an execution site. There were 40 people in total including four women. He was beaten with an axe until he lost consciousness and thrown into a well. When he regained consciousness he was covered with four or five dead bodies. Those who had not died cried out. The soldiers threw grenades into the well until there was silence. Mr. Yun asked the souls of those who died to help him survive and escape the well. He promised them he would find justice for them. He managed to release himself from the rope tied around his wrists and escaped. He returned to his parents’ village in Kampong Thom where he concealed himself inside their house.

He later fled with his father to the forest when people were evicted from the village in 1978. His father became ill and passed away.

Mrs. KAUN Sunthara was born in 1952. She said that on 17 April 1975 she and her family were told to leave  Phnom Penh.

They left the next morning travelling by foot toward Kandal Province. At the time, she was  almost nine months pregnant. She delivered her baby with the assistance of her sister and midwives who were around twelve-years-old. She did not receive any medicine and in order to have enough sustenance to  roduce breastmilk she cooked leaves with salt. In June 1977, her son died aged two-years-old because he was so 
emaciated. Her daughter, who was five years old at the time, contracted dysentery and died in December of the same year. In 1976, men and women were separated and placed in a mobile unit. Every ten days they
were allowed to return home. Her husband was not able to return home to see their children before they died. She went to her husbands worksite where she was told that her husband had been taken away.

In 1979 she received news that her brother was killed at S-21. She saw her brother and sister-in-law’s photos at S-21, however, could not find those of their two adopted children.