THE CAMBODIA DAILY
By Phann Ana and Adam Piore
ANLONG VENG DISTRICT, Oddar Meanchey province - Just after 8 am on a gray, drizzly Monday morning, a solitary gong echoed through this village of simple huts at the foot of the mist-shrouded Dangrek Mountains.
An elderly man on a prosthetic leg hobbled forward with a match, and sent a skyrocket shooting overhead.
Finally, Ta Mok's family and friends began their solemn funeral march, following the bunting- draped, white pickup truck that would carry the old soldier's coffin to his grave.
The former Khmer Rouge military chief died Friday, after more than seven years in a Phnom Penh prison.
But his family, friends and former comrades made it clear that they had not forgotten him. More than 300 showed up to bury him during an emotional day in which few referenced the dark days of the 1975-1979 Pol Pot regime.
"He gave me this car in exchange for rice to supply his soldiers," said Aroon Sawat 60, a Thai businessman who drove Ta Mok's Toyota Land Cruiser in from Thailand and watched the mourners move by as he waited to join them.
Aroon Sawat, a long-time logging associate of Ta Mok's, said he had traded the vehicle with Ta Mok in return for rice in the 1990s.
"I will keep this car as a souvenir forever. It’s the best souvenir from a great man," he said.
It was a motley procession: Toothless elderly ladies, their heads shaved in mourning, marched alongside veteran guerillas, many hobbling on artificial limbs or simple wooden crutches. Young men carried a monk on a platform, a throng of fellow monks in orange and saffron robes following close behind. Children skipping school joined Ta Mok's old comrades in arms, ordinary villagers, and former business associates.
At times, dissonant funeral music blared from tinny loudspeakers. At others, firecrackers exploded by the side of the road, and skyrockets cracked the air above, sending cows scattering and startling some of the mourners.
After marching about a half a kilometer, the procession turned around, and returned, marching past the home of Ta Mok's 43-year-old daughter Preak Chrich and stopping behind a Buddhist pagoda.
Ta Mok's family and friends hefted his wooden coffin into a recently erected stupa. Then they marched around it several times, chanting and weeping.
"He goes away from me without return," Ta Mok's second wife, Borng Nem, 45, said quietly, as she circled his grave, crying to herself.
"I will never forget what he told me—to live with independence and self defense," Vong Vin, 53, a former Ta Mok soldier said. "I will remember him forever."
Several men emerged from the crowd and lifted the coffin lid, allowing his children—Preak Ho, 55, Preak Lin, 51, Preak Heanh, 46, and Preak Chrich—and his grandchildren one last look at the feared former Khmer Rouge commander.
While some wept as they bade him farewell, one grandchild reached in and removed Ta Mok's artificial leg.
Hoisting Ta Mok's prosthetic leg aloft, the plastic foot still clad in a black sock and loafer, he proclaimed: "There is no need to keep his leg with him. Let’s build a box to keep it inside and display it here."
Khieu Nov, 73, a childhood friend from Ta Mok's home village in Takeo province and a longtime confidant delivered the eulogy, in which he steered clear of the more controversial periods of Ta Mok's life.
He noted that Ta Mok left the monkhood at 25 to marry his fiance, because he feared she would be raped by soldiers from the Khmer Issarak movement, a Cambodian resistance group that fought against the French.
Eventually, however, he joined the movement, while also serving as a commune clerk to his uncle, who was a commune chief.
During the Geneva conference in 1954, which ended French colonialism, Ta Mok became the governor of Tram Kak district in Takeo province. And he stayed with the Issarak until 1970.
"From that you know already and also after 1979, there is no need to tell you," Khieu Nov continued.
Ta Mok's ancestors lived long, worked hard, were "educated and moral," Khieu Nov said. His father was a Buddhist clergyman, his great-grandfather a lawyer and confidant of the king.
"Now that we all know his ancestors, there is no need to tell about his life in the recent past," Khieu Nov said.
"His ancestors were not gangsters or brutal, but good people. They believed in Buddhism."
Ta Mok, he said, believed that "You have to remember to do whatever you must in a human way. Even though he was carrying the gun, he always said that"
It was a message that Khiev Nov claims his boss even delivered to Pol Pot.
One day, shortly before taking over and putting Pol Pot on trial in 1997, Ta Mok, he said, put his hands together, lifted them up to Pol Pot and said: "My ancestors were good educated people with high morality. Not brutal ancestors."
"You have witnessed his achievements," Khiev Nov said.
"He built a lot of things. He brought the Tonle Sap next to us, near the Dangrek Mountains. There are a lot fish here similar to Tonle Sap. He bought good cows and tractors to the villagers for farming. I would like to inform you briefly like this, anything else, please let the scholars research. We do not need to talk about that."
Ta Mok is widely believed by genocide researchers to have been responsible for some of the Khmer Rouge's worst atrocities. He was expected to be a key witness and defendant in the upcoming tribunal aimed at prosecuting those responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime.
An elderly man on a prosthetic leg hobbled forward with a match, and sent a skyrocket shooting overhead.
Finally, Ta Mok's family and friends began their solemn funeral march, following the bunting- draped, white pickup truck that would carry the old soldier's coffin to his grave.
The former Khmer Rouge military chief died Friday, after more than seven years in a Phnom Penh prison.
But his family, friends and former comrades made it clear that they had not forgotten him. More than 300 showed up to bury him during an emotional day in which few referenced the dark days of the 1975-1979 Pol Pot regime.
"He gave me this car in exchange for rice to supply his soldiers," said Aroon Sawat 60, a Thai businessman who drove Ta Mok's Toyota Land Cruiser in from Thailand and watched the mourners move by as he waited to join them.
Aroon Sawat, a long-time logging associate of Ta Mok's, said he had traded the vehicle with Ta Mok in return for rice in the 1990s.
"I will keep this car as a souvenir forever. It’s the best souvenir from a great man," he said.
It was a motley procession: Toothless elderly ladies, their heads shaved in mourning, marched alongside veteran guerillas, many hobbling on artificial limbs or simple wooden crutches. Young men carried a monk on a platform, a throng of fellow monks in orange and saffron robes following close behind. Children skipping school joined Ta Mok's old comrades in arms, ordinary villagers, and former business associates.
At times, dissonant funeral music blared from tinny loudspeakers. At others, firecrackers exploded by the side of the road, and skyrockets cracked the air above, sending cows scattering and startling some of the mourners.
After marching about a half a kilometer, the procession turned around, and returned, marching past the home of Ta Mok's 43-year-old daughter Preak Chrich and stopping behind a Buddhist pagoda.
Ta Mok's family and friends hefted his wooden coffin into a recently erected stupa. Then they marched around it several times, chanting and weeping.
"He goes away from me without return," Ta Mok's second wife, Borng Nem, 45, said quietly, as she circled his grave, crying to herself.
"I will never forget what he told me—to live with independence and self defense," Vong Vin, 53, a former Ta Mok soldier said. "I will remember him forever."
Several men emerged from the crowd and lifted the coffin lid, allowing his children—Preak Ho, 55, Preak Lin, 51, Preak Heanh, 46, and Preak Chrich—and his grandchildren one last look at the feared former Khmer Rouge commander.
While some wept as they bade him farewell, one grandchild reached in and removed Ta Mok's artificial leg.
Hoisting Ta Mok's prosthetic leg aloft, the plastic foot still clad in a black sock and loafer, he proclaimed: "There is no need to keep his leg with him. Let’s build a box to keep it inside and display it here."
Khieu Nov, 73, a childhood friend from Ta Mok's home village in Takeo province and a longtime confidant delivered the eulogy, in which he steered clear of the more controversial periods of Ta Mok's life.
He noted that Ta Mok left the monkhood at 25 to marry his fiance, because he feared she would be raped by soldiers from the Khmer Issarak movement, a Cambodian resistance group that fought against the French.
Eventually, however, he joined the movement, while also serving as a commune clerk to his uncle, who was a commune chief.
During the Geneva conference in 1954, which ended French colonialism, Ta Mok became the governor of Tram Kak district in Takeo province. And he stayed with the Issarak until 1970.
"From that you know already and also after 1979, there is no need to tell you," Khieu Nov continued.
Ta Mok's ancestors lived long, worked hard, were "educated and moral," Khieu Nov said. His father was a Buddhist clergyman, his great-grandfather a lawyer and confidant of the king.
"Now that we all know his ancestors, there is no need to tell about his life in the recent past," Khieu Nov said.
"His ancestors were not gangsters or brutal, but good people. They believed in Buddhism."
Ta Mok, he said, believed that "You have to remember to do whatever you must in a human way. Even though he was carrying the gun, he always said that"
It was a message that Khiev Nov claims his boss even delivered to Pol Pot.
One day, shortly before taking over and putting Pol Pot on trial in 1997, Ta Mok, he said, put his hands together, lifted them up to Pol Pot and said: "My ancestors were good educated people with high morality. Not brutal ancestors."
"You have witnessed his achievements," Khiev Nov said.
"He built a lot of things. He brought the Tonle Sap next to us, near the Dangrek Mountains. There are a lot fish here similar to Tonle Sap. He bought good cows and tractors to the villagers for farming. I would like to inform you briefly like this, anything else, please let the scholars research. We do not need to talk about that."
Ta Mok is widely believed by genocide researchers to have been responsible for some of the Khmer Rouge's worst atrocities. He was expected to be a key witness and defendant in the upcoming tribunal aimed at prosecuting those responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime.
1 comment:
Stop dehumanized TA MOK for he is the number one Vietcong killer! The reason the CPP pro-Vietcong government want him death because the Vietcong believe that it is TA MOK who is responsible for all the Vietcong MIA in Cambodia.
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