Memories from the Khmer Rouge era: The murder of famous singer Sin Sisamouth

Sinn Sisamouth was a prolific singer-songwriter in Cambodia during the 1960s and '70s.

A prisoner from the Pol Pot era met Sin Sisamouth

15 February 2006
By K. Sothea
Khmer Apsara magazine
Original article in Khmer posted in www.krtrial.info
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media

Recently, after Khmer Apsara magazine published an article about the life of the “golden voice Emperor” Sin Sisamouth, one of our reader called in to tell us that the death of Sin Sisamouth as published by Khmer Apsara claiming that he died in Koh Thom, Kandal province, is not entirely true. Keo Chamnab, our reader, is about 65-year-old, he is a government official at the state statistics office of the planning department. He came out to provide the clarification on the actual disappearance and death of the “golden voice Emperor” Sin Sisamouth. He said that Sin Sisamouth was jailed with him, he also provided numerous details on Sin Sisamouth who was tortured and killed by the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime.

In the past 30 years, there are several diverging information regarding the location of the death of the romantic singer known as the “golden voice Emperor” Sin Sisamouth, as well as the torture he suffered in the hands of the Khmer Rouge. More recently, an official who is currently working at the planning department of the ministry of commerce, claimed that Sin Sisamouth died in Koh Thom district, Kandal province. The official said that he found out about this when he was sent to plant potatoes on an island in which Sin Sisamouth was jailed. Before being killed, it was claimed that Sin Sisamouth borrowed a pen from his executioner to write his will which fell in the hand of an old man living in Takhmau city, however, this old man later disappeared. Nevertheless, this official was not able to tell the name of village or commune, as well as the time when Sin Sisamouth was killed.

Later on, there were numerous other rumors claiming that Sin Sisamouth was killed by the Khmer Rouge in Battambang. It was also claimed that Sin Sisamouth asked for a crigarette to smoke and sang a song asking for justice before his tongue was cut off because the Khmer Rouge accused his tongue and his voice of serving the feudal regime, the imperialists and capitalists. He was accused of singing depraved romantic songs, and he did not serve the Angkar… Nevertheless, Sin Sisamouth’s surviving family members did not believe these rumors to be factual.

The latest claimed witness of Sin Sisamouth’s death revealed these details, as well as the location of Sin Sisamouth’s death, saying that this event directly involved him also. He said that his claim can be verified by the [Khmer Rouge] jail guards who killed Sin Sisamouth, should they still remain alive.

Keo Chamnab provides his own life story and the event which led to the murder of Sin Sisamouth

Before 1975 (year of the takeover by the Khmer Rouge), Keo Chamnab was working at the ministry of national defense, at the oil supply department. He devoted his leisure time to composing songs. Before 1975, he knew Sin Sisamouth because he wrote the song “12 Kakkada” (12 July). During the People’s Republic of Kampuchea, he continued writing some 2,000 other songs which were broadcasted on radio and television. Some of his (song composer?) friends have survived up to now, they are: Touch Chhattha, Ouk Sam At, Sum Saroeun.

Keo Chamnab said: “On 17 April 1975, I was evacuated out from Phnom Penh [by the Khmer Rouge] and went to live in Prek Ta Duong village, Prek Thmey commune, Koh Thom district. After about 3 months, it was around the beginning of July 1975, the Khmer Rouge Angkar learned that I was a soldier in the Lon Nol regime. They ordered me to be re-educated by Angkar in order to rid myself of impure old thoughts. In reality, I already knew in advance that they will put me in jail or they will even kill me. In the area where I was evacuated to, I knew that there is a jail to incarcerate those whom the Angkar accused of being part of the feudal regime, the capitalists, and the imperialists, etc… Just as I thought, they took me to a jail know as Center 15 which was then known as Area 25 (located next to a Vietnamese church along the river, in Village no. 1, Pau Ban commune, Koh Thom district, Kandal province). As soon as we walked out of the village for about one kilometer, the 4 or 5 security guards pointed their guns at me and told me to remove all my old clothes, then they tied my hands from behind and marched me to the jail.

Arriving at Center 15, I saw a camp fenced with bamboo trees. The camp is about one kilometer long by about 150 meters wide. They pushed me inside the bamboo fence and told me to go to a brick roof house built on stilt. Below the house, there were young security guards stationed there. That was the Khmer Rouge’s Angkar jail. They told me to go upstairs. As soon as I opened the door and stepped in, I saw plenty men and women prisoners, at least 60 of them, they were manacled and shackled in rows to long steel rods. This made me so scared. When they put me in jail and shackled me to other prisoners, I was very surprised to see Bang (Old Brother) Sin Sisamouth, Kong Sam Oeun (famous movie actor), and a number of other artists who was also jailed there.

When I first arrived, even though I saw Bang Samouth (Sin Sisamouth’s nickname), he did not recognize me, and I did not dare talk to him, or act as if I knew him because there were a lot of Khmer Rouge guards there, and some of them are stationed underneath the house also. They proceeded to put a shackle on my feet and attach me to a central steel rod close to Bang Samouth, there was only another prisoner between him and me.

Once the security guards left and closed the door behind them, I leaned over and tapped on Bang Samouth. I whispered to ask if he recognized me and why he was jailed. Bang Samouth was very puzzled at me and asked how I could act as if I knew him like that. I then reminded him about our acquaintance telling him: Bang! My name is Chamnab, I used to sing with you the song titled “12 July” and a few other events during our meeting before 1975.

After telling him all this, Bang Samouth then remembered who I was. Once he fully recognized me, he tapped on my shoulder and back and asked me how I was. During the recounting of his life story, Chamnab could not help but shed his tears out of his own sadness, and out of sympathy for Sin Sisamouth, sometimes, he choked when retelling his story. He said that he is not able to tell all the scary stories because of his current weak heart condition. Chamnab continued: “I then asked Bang Samouth about how long he was jailed, and what were his faults?

Bang Samuth, looking very sad, told me that he was sent from Prek Eng, Kien Svay district, Kandal province, and he was jailed there for three days already. He did not commit any fault but he was accused by the Khmer Rouge as being an imperialist. It was difficult for Sin Sisamouth to hide his identity and his face because he was a very famous singer dubbed the emperor [singer] of the country since long ago. Even if the Khmer Rouge did not accuse him of being a singer serving a regime which was a sworn enemy to that of the Khmer Rouge, he was also a soldier serving the former regime.

Furthermore, the Khmer Rouge policy was to oppose and destroy all government employees and those involved with the pre-1975 regime (Lon Nol regime). Therefore, it was difficult for him to escape or hide his identity.

Life in jail at Center 15

In the jail, every morning, between 8 to 9 AM, they provided us with a scoop of rice husk powder mixed with chopped up banana trees – the same food usually fed to pigs, in the afternoon, around 2 to 3 PM, they gave all of us another spoon each. When they gave such food, he (Bang Samouth) would pick only the chopped up banana trees from the coconut shell bowl to chew to get some nutrition. The rice husk powder did not have any taste at all. The food they provided us made us feel like we were animals.

Keo Chamnab added: The prisoners did not care about their life anymore, they did not know when they will die, whether it will be tomorrow or another day. Nevertheless, everyone presumed that they would die the next day. Bang Samouth told me that we no longer have any hope. He usually did not talk much, he used to stare the jail ceiling while others whisper to one another to reminisce about the good food they had before 1975,and some even laughed of their past stories from the Lon Nol regime. As for Bang Samouth, he did not say much, I (Keo Chamnab) asked him: Bang! What should we do, why didn’t you escape? He replied to me where would we escape to?

I did not ask him much because they did not allow the prisoners to talk to each other. I asked him how many times did they questioned him already. He told me: one time. All the prisoners are called in for questioning every day. During the questioning session, all prisoners are manacled on both feet and shackled to the chair, they were beaten and some even had their nails pulled out. As for Bang Samouth, he also bore torture marks on his back. When I saw him in this condition, I tried to collect cob webs along the wall of the jail, even while both of my feet were shackled, to make a pad to put on his wounds. I did so with great sadness and pity for him. When I first arrived in jail, his initial physical appearance did not change much, but I can clearly see that he bore torture marks. A few months later, an incident occurred while he was relieving himself. Normally, when prisoners need to pee, they had to relieve themselves in a bamboo container hung on the walls. While he was peeing, a young security guard about 15 to 16-year old opened the door to take the prisoners out for questioning, when he saw him relieving himself, he took the bamboo container and hit him very hard on the head. Nobody dared utter a word about it. The guard then lectured him and told him that he belonged to a group of people without revolutionary conscience, to a group of imperialists without revolutionary conscience. I saw tears rolling down his cheeks but he did not cry out loud as others would because to do so, he would be hit even harder, and he had no choice but to shed his tears in silence. Every day, I and all the other prisoners, including Bang Samouth, we always tried to peek outside through holes in the wall. We used to see the Chhlobs (spy soldiers) sharpen 2 or 3 knifes and testing their sharpness. Around 4 o’clock, they would call some prisoners and take them out. They would tell the prisoners that the Angkar had congratulated them (the guards) for doing a good job in re-educating the prisoners, and that those prisoners who are being called to go out, they always ended up returning back to their village where they came from. At the beginning, we believed them, but later on we noticed that the Chhlobs brought us back the clothes of those whom they took away, sometimes the clothes would still be stained with fresh blood.

We determined that those who were taken away were dead, and every time the Chhlobs would call and take the prisoners away, we would raised our hands to wish those being called for their souls to find happiness. They would reply back to us that they have reached their happiness, and that it was only us who remained behind who would have to face another day.

Sin Sisamouth is taken away to be mudered

In the jail, we were forced to perform hard labor for 5 months, then in November, I did not remember the exact day, around 5:30 PM, it was already late when 2 to 3 Chhlobs came in with a list to call the prisoners to be taken away [to kill] as usual. On that day, Bang Samouth’s name was called among the names of 4 or 5 other prisoners. He did not change his name and he was still known as Sin Sisamouth. When his name was called, I was very distressed. I saw that his face was very sad and was ashened. Before he was escorted out, he hugged me but he did not leave any message for his family, he simply said: “I am leaving before you Pha-aun (younger brother), may you remain behind in peace.” I did not want to say much, I only replied to him: “Yes, Bang.” His face was the face of a romantic person, he did not express anger nor unhappiness. While in jail, he only stared at the jail ceiling and looked at other prisoners, and shaking his head although no one knew why he did so. When he left the jail, he did not sing nor hum any tune as some would later claim.

Two days after they took Bang Samouth away from the jail, they brought back his clothes to us. This confirmed to us that he was killed. In fact, the real killer of Bang Samouth was a young security guard who was later imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge Angkar with us as well because of errors he committed. I did not dare ask him much because I was afraid he was a spy put in jail to obtain information from the prisoners.

I only asked him briefly: is it true that Bang Samouth already died? He shook his head affirmatively and said: that’s right. This former security guard told us that he was the one who actually buried Bang Samouth with his own hand in a mass gave at an earthen mound known as “Khpob.” It is a banana plantation currently located at Village No. 1, Pau Ban commune, Koh Thom district, [Kandal province]. This mass grave is currently a banana plantation occupied by farmers.

Keo Chamnab added that if there are skeptics, the jail wards and the jail administrators whose names were: Nara, Prin, Tong, Chroeung, Krak, if they are still alive, they can bear witness to the killing of Bang Samouth. As for Chamnab, he survived because they moved him to another jail. He said that before they moved him to another jail, they took him out and they tried to kill him 3 times before. However, he did not know if it was either luck or his mother spirit that protected him because every time they were about to take him to kill, something would happen which forced the Khmer Rouge guards to take him back in, and allowed him to survive up to [the Vietnamese arrival] in 1979.

Based on the location where Sin Sisamouth was killed, the information seems to corroborate with the information provided by the wife of Chan Chhaya, Sin Sisamouth’s son, who claimed that on 17 April 1975, after the take over of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge, and the population was evacuated out of the city, she saw Sin Sisamouth being evacuated also. A crowd of people gathered to look at him when he was found sleeping next to his car near Champa pagoda in Prek Eng. A few hours later, Sin Sisamouth disappeared from there and never to be seen again.

In any case, it is believed that following the evacuation of Phnom Penh in 1975, it is possible that Sin Sisamouth was more likely to be present at Prek Eng than anywhere else because in addition to the claims made above, Mrs. Sin Chan Ham, the older sister of Sin Sisamouth, also claimed that when he was single, Sin Sisamouth was involved with a woman who lived in Prek Eng. Their love resulted in a song titled: “Prek Eng is so far away …” Back then, his love was interrupted because both his and her families did not approve it. Later on, Sin Sisamouth was introduced to another pretty woman by the name of Khao Thong Nhot who was actually Sin Sisamouth’s cousin, and who still remained his wife. She is now 65-year-old and she is the mother of Chan Chhaya.

Nevertheless, it is quite possible that Sin Sisamouth was not able to end his affair with his former love in Prek Eng. Recently also, Mrs. Khao Thong Nhot confessed that Sin Sisamouth, her husband, loved a woman by the name of Chheurn Angchheara, aka Huoch Men, and they had a child together who was born near Champa pagoda, in Prek Eng.

It was not known if after the evacuation from Phnom Penh in 1975, he returned back to Prek Eng either to live with his long lost love, or with Ms. Chheurn Angchheara, or he was just being evacuated out all alone. Chan Chhaya said that his family was also evacuated to Koh Thom as well, but that they did not meet his father. Because during the Pol Pot era, people are not allowed to travel from one place to another, Sin Sisamouth was not able to meet his family even though they may be located closed to each other.

All the stories involving Sin Sisamouth are somehow related to the same place: Prek Eng, and even he met his death there. With the publication of this information by Apsara magazine, whether the story above is true or not, Sin Sisamouth’s family and his fans should be able to conduct additional research in this area to find his remains in order to give him a proper religious burial rite.

Additional information about Sin Sisamouth from Wikipedia:

Early life

Sin Sisamouth was born in 1935 in Stung Treng Province, the son of Sinn Leang and mother Seb Bunlei who was of Lao-Chinese descent.

He was the youngest of four siblings, with one brother and two sisters. His father was a prison warden in Battambang Province and was then a soldier during the Colonial Cambodia period. His father died of disease and his mother remarried, and the union resulted in two more children.

Samouth attended Central Province of Stung Treng Elementary School when he was 5. At around age 6 or 7, he started show interest in the guitar, and he would be asked to perform at school functions. He was also interested in Buddhist scripture and other books as well as playing soccer and flying kites.

Around 1951, he passed elementary school and intended to study medicine in Phnom Penh, but continued working at becoming a singer and writing songs. Just as he had in elementary school, he became well known in his school for his music and was asked to sing at school ceremonies.

By the time Cambodia was granted independence from France in 1953, Samouth's fine singing voice landed him a spot on national radio as a regular singer. He also continued his studies, working at Pheah Ketokmala Hospital.

Music career

After completing medical school, Samouth married his cousin, Keo Thorng Gnut in an arranged marriage. The couple had four children. But he was also a very famous singing star in Cambodia, and his life as a celebrity eclipsed his family life.

He possessed a clear crooning voice, which combined with his own compositions of the pleasures and pains of romance, made him an irrestible idol. He sang many ballads, as well uptempo rock numbers that featured prominent, distortion-laden guitar, pumping organ and loud, driving drums. Other arrangments were more Latin jazz-sounding, featuring woodwinds, brass and auxiliary percussion.

He sang the soundtrack songs to many famous movies of his time, such as On srey On and Thavory meas bong. He recorded many duets with female singing partners Ros Sereysothea and Pan Ron. Ros Sereysothea's high, crisp voice nicely balanced the deeper-toned voice of Sisamouth.

As the top music artist in the kingdom, he was asked to lead the palace band of King Norodom Sihanouk, a job he held until 1970. He performed not only contemporary songs, but the Khmer traditional music as well.

From 1972 to 1973 music publisher Kruorch Bunlyhe issued "A Collection of Sentimental Songs", which contained 500 of Sinn Sisamouth's songs. That was just one publisher. It's estimated that he wrote thousands of songs, possibly at least one for each day he was famous, his son Sinn Chaya has said.

Along with his original works, Samouth also introduced many Western pop tunes to Cambodia, simply writing new verses in Khmer language. Examples include "The House of the Rising Sun" as "I'm Still Waiting for You" (a particularly good showcase of his sustained phrasing and baritone voice), "Black Magic Woman" (drawing influence from the Santana version) as "I Love Petite Women", and "Quando My Love", a crooner's classic in any language.

The Killing Fields

After the coup d'état by the Lon Nol government on March 18, 1970 deposed the rule of Sihanouk, Samouth led ministry bands under the Khmer Republic, rising to the military rank of captain by the time of the Khmer Rouge takeover on April 17, 1975. Along with millions of other residents, Samouth was forced to leave Phnom Penh.

By this time he had remarried, to a dancer in the royal ballet, who was pregnant at the time with the couple's second child.

The circumstances of his death in the Killing Fields are unknown. But he had connections to the old government, was highly educated and was an artist - all trappings of a society that Pol Pot sought to eradicate. One story is that before he was to be executed, Samouth asked he be allowed to sing a song for the cadre, but the cold-hearted soldiers were unmoved and after he finished singing, they killed him anyhow.