Love of Life - A Miraculous Story
SOKHOM PRINS - asian memoir, asian memoirs, memoir,
memoirs, KHMER ROUGE RAPE, Cambodia AND pOL pOT, Cambodia history. ANGKAR
The next morning - 18 April 1975: the
excellent “Angkar”!
Very early the next morning, the Khmer Rouge
invaded our village again. They announced from trucks with huge loudspeakers
(prematurely waking up everyone who was still recovering from the previous
evening’s festivities, the earth-shaking news of the evacuation of Phnom Penh,
and the presence of the Khmer Rouge in the village), that all villagers must go
to the village hall for a meeting that was to start at 7 a.m. We were told not
to take food, drink or anything with us. If we disobeyed the rules, we would be
punished harshly. (Our village, typical of other large ones, had about a
thousand inhabitants – maybe double this before the civil war started in 1970.)
People were frightened when they heard that
the whole village population must attend the meeting at the hall - they feared
that we would meet the same fate at gun point as what had happened to the
residents of Phnom Penh. The villagers were suspicious of the Khmer Rouge, but
some also thought that the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh was only for three
days. They did not think that the Khmer Rouge would evacuate people living in
the countryside, as where would they take us, given that we were already here
in the countryside?
We remained terrified of the threat of
evacuation, because the Khmer Rouge had
absolute power; we feared these tyrants, were horrified and trembled at the
knees, and chills ran down our spines, because of what we found out had
happened in Phnom Penh the day before. We heard on the radio that the forced
evacuation was still going on, as we gathered for the 7 a.m. meeting.
As ordered, everyone was there at the
appointed time and place; the village had emptied out for the first time ever.
Even under constant American bombing, the village was never this deserted. I
was in shock from the suddenness of events that were taking place here in our
very own village. As a young girl of nearly 6 years, I was very suspicious of
them and feared the consequences of the meeting. I thought that they had left
our village for good the previous evening. It turned out that they had just
pretended to leave; they were hiding somewhere nearby, only to return
unexpectedly while everyone was still sleeping. This took us all by surprise –
which was probably their intention.
I was not sitting with my family on the
crowded concrete floor in the meeting hall (it had a roof, but no walls) - I
stood apart with other adults on the side of the gathering. I did not like to
be under that hall’s roof, because it was made of metal - I knew it would get
very hot soon. I did not want to be confined to that hot, crowded place, full
of people. I was very worried about my mother with baby Lang (who may make a
lot of noise), and my sister Sokheim, 3 years’ old at the time. The older
siblings were there to help mom – they were sitting on the concrete floor. I
thought being outside might have some usefulness for them, e.g. to get some
water or find something for them to eat later. I had a feeling that this
meeting was going to be a very long one. Children were crying from the chaos;
everyone was waiting for the Khmer Rouge leaders to come.
The meeting starts
Finally two leaders and a large number of guards
appeared, all wearing the same black uniforms. The leaders carried guns, the
guards guns and sticks. The leaders seemed not much older than the young
guards. One of the leaders, holding pencil and paper, went up the steps to the
stage; a table with chairs had been arranged earlier. They did not sit down,
just stood there barking. There were at least 20 armed guards surrounding us,
glaring at us with hatred and anger. They had impatient looks on their faces,
and were waving their guns around menacingly and dangerously. It struck fear
into our hearts; the whole scene was domineering, powerful and confrontational
- very effective and deadly.
I was shaking, frozen with fright. I had been
scared of American bombs, choppers, the Vietcong, Lon Nol, and the civil war. I
had heard of their propaganda campaigns and brutality in regions they
controlled, and knew what was happening in Phnom Penh. But here they were now,
real live Khmer Rouge, walking right next to me! They were circling the
villagers, glaring at them with dead soulless eyes. They continued to wave
their guns and sticks, shouting swear words, degrading and swatting us like
flies, if anyone did not pay sufficient attention to them or the leader on
stage.
I could see and hear that they barked like
dogs at us; they did not talk normally, they were like programmed robots. I
noticed that their accents were different from ours in the east, because they
mainly came from the west; one could see from their attitudes and bearing, that
they were uneducated, uncultured and uncivilized. To liken them to wild animals
would be to insult all wild animals. I thought that I must be strong and pull
myself up, that I would not cry. We had all gone quiet, too scared to move or
make any sound - young, old, the sick and vulnerable.
The “excellent” Angkar
The leader abruptly, without any formal
greeting to the village elders, started to bark loudly, with his arms waving
about with great force and authority. First he said he was the “Angkar”
representative in this village. He then praised the Angkar victory, shouted how
divine, fantastic, excellent and wonderful they are. He yelled that this whole
village and whole territory must absolutely obey all Angkar rules ordered from
above without question. Apparently these rules came from the supreme leader,
“Brother Number One”. Of course at that time we had no idea what “Angkar” was,
or who “Brother Number One” was!
The morning after New Year was the start of
year “Zero”, when “Angkar” took over. (We later discovered that the Khmer Rouge
called it this because they wanted to erase - bring to zero - 2,000 years of
Khmer history and civilization).
So I wondered who was this “Angkar” he kept
talking about? Was it a thing or human or some idol they worship, this Angkar?
And who was this “Number One” person they were talking about – was there also a
“Number Two” brother? I was confused and racked my brain, trying to work out
what was happening. They told us that if anyone was caught bending or betraying
Angkar’s rules, even in the slightest, then that person would be punished on
the spot by a long term of imprisonment, or sent to a re-education camp with
hard labor, or put to death. They then gave us some further orders and rules
that we had to comply with, or be punished as above.
First and foremost, and at all times, we must
respect, love and obey the excellent Angkar. One must work “to the boiling
point”, work nonstop, work harder than we had ever worked before, for the
beloved “Brand New Revolution” - yes, work day and night, grow more rice to
meet “the demand”. We had no idea whose “demand” this had to satisfy.
Nonetheless, the supply must please the excellent “Angkar”, make it proud of
this whole territory; all production targets must be met.
Everything now belongs to Angkar!
……………………………………….
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