LING Lrysov

As one of the workers in a mobile unit in Trapeang Thma Dam construction site in Phnum Srok district, Battambang province,¹ Ling Lrysov was assigned to carry dirt to build the dam during the Khmer Rouge period from 1975-1979.² She testified as a witness before the Trial Chamber in Case 002/02 about the hard working and living conditions at the Trapeang Thma Dam worksite,³ in particular the hot battlefield⁴ where people were asked to work exceedingly hard to complete the building of the dam as soon as possible.⁵

Working and living conditions at Trapeang Thma Dam

Lrysov told the court that her 10-member squad received a quota of 10-15 cubic meters of soil to dig, and that she sometimes had to work into the night-time to complete the quota, before receiving a new quota the next day:⁶

“If we were not able to accomplish the work quota at night-time, we would receive another work quota that we had to complete altogether with the previous quota.”⁷ However, in her written record of the interview with OCIJ investigators she stated that a group of 10 people were allocated 30 cubic meters of soil per day and there was no allotment in cubic meters for night work. When confronted with this inconsistency, the witness said that the statements she provided to OCIJ investigators was true.⁸

Lrysov testified that she had heard of deaths from overwork and starvation because people did not have enough cooked rice to eat, and as a result, they collapsed at the worksite and died.⁹ She contracted malaria for one month and half and was referred to a hospital in Paoy Char Commune.¹⁰ During her stay in hospital, Lrysov was accused of fleeing the worksite and punished by being deprived of food.¹¹ The Chamber found that she provided contradictory statements concerning the place where she got malaria.¹² Before the Chamber she claimed that she contracted malaria when working at the Dam site, whereas in her written record of interview she stated that she had contracted the disease while farming at Kampong Thom province.¹³ When confronted with this inconsistency, she said that her written statement to OCIJ investigators was incorrect.¹⁴

Arrests and killings Trapeang Thma Dam

The Chamber also found her testimony concerning the arrests and killings at the Trapeang Thma Dam worksite inconsistent with the statement she provided to OCIJ investigators. For example, after initially indicating in court that she had never seen any killings at the worksite, she was reminded that she stated to OCIJ investigators that she saw a pregnant woman being tied, beaten and dropped by “three Khmer Rouge […] killers […] in black uniform[s]” into the pit of the first bridge’s edge of Trapeang Thma Dam.¹⁵

Following this reminder, she amended her testimony to say that she had witnessed this killing.¹⁶ Furthermore, in court she stated that she had only seen one incident where 15-20 men and women were arrested and tied up one behind the other but that she was “so afraid that [she] did not dare look at this execution scene”.¹⁷ When confronted with her written record of interview in which she stated that she saw people being arrested three times at the worksite, she said she did not remember this.¹⁸ Relying on her testimony the Chamber found that the deaths of the victims were caused by beatings inflicted by unidentified militiamen at the dam.¹⁹

The Chamber found that this witness had memory problems, which she admitted and resulted in her not being able to recall many of the events she experienced.²⁰ Therefore, the Chamber decided to rely on her testimony only where it was consistent with other evidence.²¹

Videos

Testimony
Date	Written record of proceedings	Transcript number
20/08/2015	E1/334	E1/334.1

Relevant documents
Document title Khmer	Document title English	Document title French	Document D number	Document E3 number
កំណត់ហេតុនៃការស្តាប់ចម្លើយសាក្សី យី ឡៃសូវ	Written Record of Interview of Yl Laisauv	Procès-verbal d’audition de Yl Laisauv	D116/101	E3/9338