TOENG Sokha

Events prior to 1975.

Prior to 1975, the civil party Toeng Sokha lived in Phnom Penh, where she and her husband worked as schoolteachers. In the months before 16 April 1975, she heard fighting and bombardment, and noticed people arriving in Phnom Penh from various locations. Her family gave refuge to some relatives, escaping from zones where the conflict was ongoing.

Events on 17 April 1975 and the first phase of movement of the population.

On 17 April 1975, Khmer Rouge soldiers instructed Toeng Sokha and her family to leave the city for three days without carrying many belongings, to allow “cleaning” the city of enemies. She departed by foot in the afternoon with some family members, while others were separated. She remembered that the street was crowded, so they proceeded slowly, wandering without a destination for eleven days. The conditions of the journey were difficult: even though the Khmer Rouge soldiers guarded the evacuees during the night, they did not supply any food or medical assistance. Thus, she exchanged her jewellery for food, while the Khmer Rouge confiscated her radio. She witnessed that old people struggled throughout the journey, and saw dead people along the road: she particularly recalled having slept next to the decapitated body of a Lon Nol soldier.

Treatment of New People.

Toeng Sokha and her family ended up in Bati, where some relatives, who were New People, hosted them in their house and gave them food. The Khmer Rouge assigned her to collecting leaves and, during a meeting, inquired about her former occupation in Phnom Penh: learning that she was a teacher, they ordered her and all the New People to live separately from the Base People. She was relocated three times within the same village, and she was finally sent to live at Trapeang Angk, a location where intellectuals and educated people were gathered. She also recalled hearing that all former soldiers were transferred to another village, but they were never seen again.

Second phase of movement of the population.

Around August 1975, Toeng Sokha attended a meeting during which the Khmer Rouge called on her and other “intellectuals” to relocate to another village, where there would be more rice. She remembered that the Khmer Rouge killed those who tried to hide to avoid the relocation. She was transferred to Pursat by truck: all evacuees sat in the back of the vehicle, on the floor, guarded by Khmer Rouge soldiers. The conditions of the journey were bad, as the road was bumpy, they did not receive food, and some people were sick. In Pursat, evacuees were loaded on a train, which left them at a place called Kouk Trom, where there was not a village; so, they stayed at the station, collecting water and leaves and cooking worms for survival. After some days, a man showed them the road to a barn, where she and her family took refuge. A few months later, they finished the food, so Toeng Sokha and her relatives moved again; on the road, she saw people die from hunger in small huts. During that trip, her second daughter, like other members of the family, died due to lack of food and medicine. Eventually, Toeng Sokha and some relatives reached another village where living conditions were so desperate that her husband died by suicide in 1978. The Supreme Court Chamber agreed with the Trial Chamber’s findings as to lack of hygiene facilities during “Population Movement Phase Two”, with particular regard to the lack of nutrition, accommodation, and medicine in the villages, and to the poor conditions on trucks and trains, which for most of evacuees had even worse consequences due to their already weakened state caused by the first forced transfer. ***

Statement of suffering

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, the Prosecution, and thank you, all the counsel who participate and follow today's proceedings. I am grateful that the President of this Chamber allows me the opportunity to make a statement regarding the harms I suffered between 1975 and 1979 which was the cause of the Khmer Rouge regime. Mr. President, all the words expressed in my statement are true and correct. I, myself, in fact, tried to forget all those events. If not, it's going to be too long and too heavy and too vicious on me. It is the greatest tragedy that we all should be sorry for, and it is difficult to find a word to describe all those events that we experienced. It is a story beyond imagination and that cannot -- and that we cannot accept it. We tried to survive after 1979 and we reunited with some of our family members. However, we also received news about the loss of our family members who were tortured, killed, stabbed to death at various locations where they were evacuated to, both in the first and second phase of evacuation. During the evacuation from Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, it could be compared to a bomb was exploded to shatter all the families in Phnom Penh. We separated from one another in a sudden movement. We separated from family members, from friends, and we suddenly lost all what we earned and all the properties we lost. We did not get news from them; some of them even until today and in around September 1975, I was by myself far away from my native village, from my family members and from my close friends. We were forced to live in a flooded forest at an unknown location without any food, without housing, without shelter, and we did not know any of the Base People. Initially, we lived along the railway track at Kouk Trom. We didn't have equipment to clear the forest, and it was monsoon and it was heavily raining at the time. We were restricted in our movement and we only could live amongst the evacuees who did not have anything and some of us died -- died of starvation, died of lack of medicine, and I could clearly see that that was a method of killing, in particular the killing of people evacuated from Phnom Penh, as we were abandoned in the forest to die and we died without shedding any blood. We were skinny and we lived like animals. We did not have anything to eat, but the millipedes, and sometimes we even dare eat gecko or the "pros svar" trees or the roots of various watery plants. In short, we could compare our living to the situation as we could eat anything that we could find. Even for "thnung" tree, which was bitter, we found it sweet to eat. Ourself, our physical appearance was like a dead body. We didn't have any strength to speak. It seems like we were living in a prison without wall which was like the animals living in the animal sanctuary in Ta Mau Mountain. It was barbarous. And in 1976, I lost my daughter, my father-in-law, my two in-laws and my husband committed suicide. And one of my other daughters lost her voice. She became mute. So the second phase of movement was the most difficult for us. It was more difficult than the first phase. It was the greatest sorrow fell upon us. We were so down physically and mentally. It was the greatest sorrow inflicted upon us and remained in our mind. And when I lost my daughter, it was the saddest time in my life that I could hardly survive and became mad and crazy. She called me twice before she died and when I saw her body was picked up, I was speechless. I didn't know what to say or to describe to anyone. I couldn't tell anyone about my deepest sorrow. She was put into a hammock together with other seven dead bodies. And I was so shocked when my husband committed suicide. I saw him hanging in the air inside a house. I cried. I cried without tear. I wanted to cry to reduce my sorrow, but I was afraid that if they knew that I cried then I would be killed. I was terrified, most terrified than at any other time. I became almost mad and that feeling remains with me until such time that I, myself, wanted to commit suicide. I was so angry against myself that I didn't have the ability to save my family members. I became hopeless. Previously, I told myself that I must try myself to look after myself and my family members and my children, but in the end, my children died in my hand before my eyes. And I even asked and begged my husband to kill me; I did not want to live in such a terrible situation. My husband embraced me and said that my body only had bones. He means that I would die soon. These are just the summary of what happened, Mr. President, as I could not describe in details at this time. In summary, my mind was heavily impacted by the events and I did not want to live to relive the sorrow and the suffering. However, such suffering cannot disappear. It is -- we cannot compare to the erasing of the voice on a tape. I still sleep with my tears coming from my eyes. When I recall the times that I was separated from my family and the children separated from me, sometimes I cry, wherever I was. I tried to turn to Buddhist disciplines in order to reduce the sadness within me. But when it comes to the material loss, I lost everything including my house. I lost all the value of my property. In gold, it could be amounted up to 925 "damleung" in gold value. A number of my family members died. Eight of my distant relatives died and six of my closest friends died. And at the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, I almost lost my capacity to earn a living. I couldn't develop myself any further. I had nightmares. I had tremor in my chest and I found it difficult to breathe. I had insomnia and I could not sleep without a sleeping tablet. I want the Prosecution and the trial to proceed so that the next generation will understand and remember of what happened, and, in the end, I appeal and urge to Mr. President to provide justice to me, to my family members and to all the victims, including those who survived and those who died during the regime so that they would satisfy with the justice and that they would find peace in their mind. I'm grateful, Mr. President.

Videos

Testimony
Date	Written record of proceedings	Transcript number
04/12/2012	E1/147	E1/147.1

Relevant documents
Document title Khmer	Document title English	Document title French	Document D number	Document E3 number
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