Theary Seng, the voice of the Khmer Rouge victims

[KI-Media Note: With the approach of the upcoming trial for the four KR leaders, KI-Media is posting some past stories regarding this trial.]

Theary Seng (Photo: Nigel Dickinson, 2010)

Cambodia: Four [KR] leaders will be tried following the trial of Duch, the executioner.

18/04/2009

Arnaud Dubus

Liberation (France)

Translated from French by Luc Sâr

Her pretty Sino-Khmer face sometimes shows a grimace of concern. It is as if a painful memory or a dark thought suddenly flashes through her mind. Theary Seng was a former victim of the Khmer Rouge regime under which 1.7 million Cambodians died between 1975 and 1979.

She joined the civil party in the trial of the four main Khmer Rouge leaders which will take place in Phnom Penh following the conclusion of the ongoing trial for Duch, the executioner. During the preliminary hearing, Theary Seng engaged Nuon Chea, the former number 2 leader of the Khmer Rouge regime and she did not hesitate to point out to the judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC): "If Nuon Chea is not responsible, then who is responsible for the death of my parents and other victims?" However, some found her to be "too emotional," if not "misplaced". However, Theary Seng does not want to make up for that.

"Forum"

Covered by an elegant Khmer silk shawl while sitting at her office at the Centre for Social Development, one of the leading Cambodian NGO, she does not want to lose sight on what she considers to be the main interest of the trial and its limitations. "The Khmer Rouge trial has legal significance. This is about the rule of law. People must see that justice is rendered. But the court is only a forum where the evidence is evaluated. This has nothing to do with justice." She deplores the legal wrangling between lawyers and prosecutors behind the ECCC bulletproof windows. "Justice is much broader,” she said. “If a Khmer Rouge were to come and meet me right now and he were to apologize for the death of my parents, even without any tribunal, then it would a fuller form of justice, more satisfactory than any legal proceedings."

Theary Seng was 4 years old when the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. Her father was a senior officer in Lon Nol’s Republican army – the weak marshal whom the U.S. presidents, from Nixon to Ford, supported with funds, weapons and military advisers.

The forced evacuation by the Khmer Rouge of the capital were followed by a huge stream of hundreds of thousands of refugees who had to survive in the countryside under constant threat from guns wielded by kids dressed in black; the constant presence of death, disease, starvation and executions was the kaleidoscope of images that was etched into Theary’s mind as a young girl. Her father was "summoned" in the weeks following the fall of the Cambodian capital. Her mother soon learned from the mouth of a Khmer Rouge that he "will not return back." Theary's family – her four brothers, mother and grandmother – then fled to Svay Rieng province, near the Vietnamese border, the home of her father’s parents. "At first, the reception by the ‘old people’ – as the Khmer Rouge classified the farmers as opposed to ‘new people,’ i.e. the arriving city folks – is cordial. However, pettiness soon rained in very quickly. The old people looked at me and my mother’s fair skin and they thought that we had led a luxurious life, thus, it was time for them to take revenge on us."

"Ropes"

At the end of 1977and early 1978, in their paranoia, the Khmer Rouge leadership ordered extensive purges of "traitors" whom they accused of having "a Vietnamese brain with a Khmer body." The eastern provinces bordering with Vietnam were particularly targeted. "Entire villages were executed. The Eastern zone was the center of cruelty," Theary Seng said. Annoyed by the city folks who took refuge in his territory, the village chief ordered their arrest.

Moved to the Boeung Rei detention center in late 1978, one evening, Theary saw a Khmer Rouge night guard entering their hut with wet ropes in his hands. She asked her mother: "Why do they carry wet ropes?" "Go back to sleep, my daughter," her mother replied. "These were the last words I ever heard from her again." According to the Documentation Center of Cambodia, about 20,000 prisoners were killed in the Boeung Rei prison. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in January 1979, the family migrated to the United States after they were sponsored by one of her uncles. Haunted by the loss of her parents, Theary Seng now focuses on assisting other victims. Through her own experience, she encourages them to join the civil party.