Comrades Sar Kheng, Hor 5 Hong and Hun Xen were KR cadres, they were no victims of the KR regime: Le Monde

Comrade Im Chem (L) is a small KR fish when compared the other big KR fish such as: Comrade Hor 5 Hong, Comrade Sar Kheng and Comrade Hun Xen. Yet, she is investigated by the KR Tribunal while the others are living the high life of government officials.

An ex-KR claims the right to be forgotten

29 September 2009
By Jacques Follorou
Special Report
Le Monde (France)
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

"Numerous former KR cadres currently occupy powerful positions. They defected prior to the fall of the [KR] regime to escape the internal purges. It was the cases of Sar Kheng, the minister of Interior, and of Hor Nam Hong, the minister of Foreign Affairs. Hun Sen, the prime minister, was also one of Pol Pot’s faithful followers, he defected to the enemy, the Vietnamese."

Trapaing Tav (Cambodia) – At first glance, it is difficult to picture that Im Chem, a slender-looking grandmother with high cheek bones, is among the five new people accused by the KR Tribunal in mid-September. The tribunal is in charge of judging crimes perpetrated by the KR between 1975 and 1979.

Not far from Anlong Veng (northern Cambodia), the historical KR stronghold, Im Chem received us at a wooden table while being surrounded by a group of her family, inside her house built on stilt. Dressed in a brown blouse with large buttons, her piercing eyes with blue reflections are changing from smiling to cold looking. She said that she was not informed about the investigation against her: “I am not scared of anything, I did nothing wrong.”

Up to now, only the former leaders of this terror regime, which led to the death of at least 1.7 million people between 1975 and 1979, were legally pursued. Im Chem was only a small part of the KR system. During the time when the actions in which she was accused of took place – a direct involvement in the mass crimes perpetrated between 1978 and 1979 – she was the district chief of Preah Net Preah [Buddha’s eye] located in Banteay Meanchey province along Cambodia’s northwest, at the border with Thailand. Thirty years later, she is still occupying an official position. Considered as an official, she is the deputy-chief of the Trapaing Tav commune, about half an hour away from Anglong Veng. She symbolizes a Cambodia that is torn between the right to be forgotten and the sanction against unpunished crimes.

“Nothing to regret about”

In 1998, the Cambodian government initiated the national reconciliation process. Ex-soldiers of the Pol Pot regime were drafted into the regular army. The administration of the north and west regions, the traditional KR stronghold, was given to them in exchange for their disarmament. Numerous former KR cadres currently occupy powerful positions. They defected prior to the fall of the [KR] regime to escape the internal purges. It was the cases of Sar Kheng, the minister of Interior, and of Hor Nam Hong, the minister of Foreign Affairs. Hun Sen, the prime minister, was also one of Pol Pot’s faithful followers, he defected to the enemy, the Vietnamese.

When reminiscing about the past, Im Chem sometimes closes her eyes, as if she is enthralled by her souvenirs. “I have nothing to regret about what I did under the KR era. We felt that we were at war, we could not act against the events. Throughout history, there were always errors being made.” According to testimonies collected in the charges leveled against her, as district chief, Im Chem would have ordered the arrest of dozens of people and sent them to a local “security center.” Cambodia then counted several hundreds of such prison camps. The most famous of them all was S-21 [Tuol Sleng] in Phnom Penh where 12,380 people found their death.

“When I became the Preah Net Preah district chief,” she claimed without batting her eyes, “the rules were already in place; we pushed people to produce as much as possible; if you do not abide by the law, you must pay for it and that could mean death. We never killed people for nothing.”

Daughter of poor farmers, she only spent three years in a school run by monks before returning back to her parents’ rice fields. According to her, people did not join the KR by force, but rather “to defend the country” against the enemies both internal and external. “The responsibility of the death of the Cambodians does not lie on the Khmer Rouge alone. Why nobody recall fact that soldiers of the pro-US Lon Nol military regime [1970-1975], as well as the US bombings between 1974 and 1974, led to numerous civilian victims?” she wondered. At the fall of the KR, she escaped to the Dangrek Mountains along the northern border with Thailand, then a refuge for thousands of the Pol Pot followers up to 1998. “They would have killed me if I stayed behind.”

Currently, she is living in an area that is 100% inhabited by former KR followers. She confides that she is living in peace, surrounded by five children and ten grandchildren. “We must know how to turn the page. If they continue to investigate me and others, this will lead to hatred by our children and it will bring in a new civil war.”