NORNG Chanphal

Pseudonym: CP1/7

Cases: Case 001

Category: Witness

Background

Norng Chanphal, born in 1970, lived with his parents in a cooperative in Kampong Speu. His father, a Khmer Rouge cadre, worked at the railway timber workshop, and his mother was a farmer. He has seven siblings, including his youngest brother Norng Chanly, alias A Let. Norng Chanphal testified that after his father received a letter requesting him to work in Phnom Penh, he, his mother, and his younger brother A Let, were taken to Phnom Penh, along with two other women and their children by jeep.

S-21 Prisoner

Norng Chanphal testified that he was terrified when he saw his mother being mistreated upon their arrival to Phnom Penh. They were first brought to a room where his mother was photographed with a number assigned to it. He saw his mother being pushed, shouted at, threatened, pushed to the floor and hit. They were then placed in a common room together with the other two women and their children where they spent a night. In the morning he and the other children were separated from their parents and put in the workshop behind the building where the mothers were detained.

Norng Chanphal saw his mother only one more time as she looked at him through the window bars of her detention cell. He and his brother, along with three other children, were placed in care of an elder woman, slept at the rear of the workshop, and were fed gruel two times a day.

Norng Chanphal testified that he could not recall how long he stayed there or what the other children did. Recalling the day the Khmer Rouge forces left S-21, he noticed that it was unusual as there seemed to be a rush with the back entrance being wide open as shelling could be heard and soldiers in Vietnamese uniform could be seen. ¹⁶

The soldiers who arrived first to S-21 fed the children some cooked rice and duck and left hastily. The next morning Norng Chanphal and the other children were taken to the hospital by the Vietnamese army. One of the children died the night before they were taken away from S-21, while the other children were too weak to walk.

On 6 January 1979, the day before he was rescued from S-21, Norng Chanphal recalled hiding behind a pile of clothes and broken furniture so that his mother would be able to find him.

Norng Chanphal also testified about what he saw when he tried to search for his mother in the buildings:

Q. Did you see people die while you were leaving -- I mean, the dead body?

A. When the woman asked me to leave and then I did not go with her, then she left, then I saw the open gate, then I went to climb upstairs to the second floor to see the open door, but I could not find my mother. Then I ran to the next building and I saw people lying inside the room and maybe they died, although they were not swollen. I could see them lying on the beds and there were blood and I was scared and then I kept running and crying for mother, searching for mother. I was scared when I saw a person who was chained to the bed lying there. ²¹

Norng Chanphal identified his father’s S-21 biography.

The Trial Chamber relied on Norng Chanphal’s testimony, among other evidence, in its findings regarding the mass executions upon the fall of Phnom Penh in 1979 and the work of the Documentation Unit at S-21. The Trial Chamber also referred to Norng Chanphal’s testimony in finding that the S-21 list of prisoners was incomplete.

The Trial Chamber generally referenced Norng Chanphal’s testimony in its entirety in its analysis of article 5 of the ECCC law and its findings that the crimes committed at S-21 were directed against any civilian population.

Duch raised the issue that there is no evidence that Norng Chanphal and his mother were at S-21 and that perhaps the events described by Norng Chanphal occurred at some other security center. Initially, Duch also contested that Norng Chanphal’s father died at S-21, however, after S-21 records of the witness’s father were presented, Duch confirmed his acknowledgement that the witness’s father died at S-21.

Rejected Civil Party Application

Initially Norng Chanphal applied to become a civil party and seek justice for his parents, however his application was rejected on the ground that he missed the deadline for application.

Videos

Testimony
Date	Written record of proceedings	Transcript number
2 July 2009	E1/42	E1/42.1

Relevant documents
Document title Khmer	Document title English	Document title French	Document D number	Document E3 number
NONE	NONE	NONE