Accused of Stealing Rice and Kil

            I think it was in 1976, one year after Phnom Penh was liberated, when I was ill. My body got swollen. I was allowed to receive treatment in a hospital in Kampong Chhnang province. I stayed in the hospital for four months, but I did not get better. I received most of the time the tablets which looked like rabbit dung. There were hundreds of patients in the hospital. Some patients stayed in the big houses, some in the small individual houses. My husband and I were allowed to have a small house with a palm leave roof.

My husband Voun was 40 years old. Before he came to stay with me in the hospital, he had to go to the rice fields far away from me and plowed every morning. He was not allowed to come to meet me. He worked so hard that he got so skinny and became ill. When he knew that I was staying in the hospital and he himself was also ill, he asked the permission from his unit leader to come and receive treatment at the hospital with me. I had three children at that time. The youngest was ten years old. My picture is about what happened at the hospital in 1976.

One day at 11 o’clock before lunch time my husband got his rice and ate it all. He then took a break at the house with me and Mit, my youngest son. Then there was a quarrel over the rice among the patients in the kitchen. Then Comrade Hou came to my house. She told my husband to come down. Then she told two soldiers to arrest my husband because someone told her that my husband had stolen the rice meant for another person which started the quarrel. Actually he had neither stolen the rice nor taken part in the quarrel. He was with me and my son in the house.

My husband and I tried to beg her and told her that my husband did not steal the rice. However, Comrade Hou and the two soldiers, one of whom was related to my husband, did not listen to us. They tied my husband’s hands up and took him a few kilometers away from home. They did not allow me to go with them. Still, I ran to them carrying my son with me. I tried begging them to release my husband. One of them said to me, “If you want to die, you come; if you want to live, go back immediately”. I still followed them. Then one of them hit me on my shoulder with his rifle and told me to go back home. My shoulder hurt so much. I lost hope that those soldiers would release my husband. Then I did not follow them any further.

The two Khmer Rouge soldiers then took my husband away. My husband tried to look at me and my son until we lost sight of each other. I stood looking, still holding the hand of my son.

The soldier, who was the relative of my husband, did not help us. I think he pretended that he did not know my husband because he respected the rules of the Khmer Rouge. Or he was afraid that he would be accused of not being loyal to the Angkar.

Around half an hour later, I heard three gun shots from the direction that they took my husband to. I believed they shot my husband. Since then I have never seen him again.

On that day, not only my husband was arrested, but also about a hundred people in the hospital. They all were brought to Samdech Tok pagoda which was used as a prison during their reign. During the night, over a hundred people more were arrested and also brought to Samdech Tok pagoda. None of them returned. About 6 days later, I saw two bodies floating on the stream (river?). I could not recognize who they were because their bodies were so swollen. After leaving the hospital, I was ordered to transplant rice for the rest of the Khmer Rouge period.

            Now I am living alone but sometimes my two grandchildren, the children of Mit, come to stay with me. I am a rice farmer. When I am free from planting rice I make mats and produce roofing materials made of palm leaves and sell them for little money.

I never heard about the tribunal that is trying the Khmer Rouge leaders. I just knew recently about it when Youth for Peace came to our village. I support this court although I cannot get my husband back. I do not feel disappointed like I was after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. I feel there are people [the court] who pay attention to us. I am happy today that I have drawn a picture of my husband because I never drew a picture before.

           

Painter: So Phan

Age: 60

Title of the Painting: Accused of Stealing Rice and Killed

Province: Kampong Chhnang

Writer: Chheng Niem