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| Hem Rith, 53, speaks to the Post yesterday on the sidelines of the Khmer Rouge tribunal. Heng Chivoan |
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post
Hem Rith guesses she was only 5 years old when she was snatched from her home in Kandal province by the Khmer Rouge to work as a waiter in the Royal Palace, but it was not until her master consoled her one day that she discovered her boss was then-King Norodom Sihanouk.
The 53-year-old’s bones are visible beneath her sun-darkened skin, but despite physical evidence of hardship, she is stoic in remembering the fate the murderous Khmer Rouge regime chose for her in serving Democratic Kampuchea’s figureheads at the Royal Palace during their reign.
“About two weeks after I was taken from Takeo to the Royal Palace, [then-King Norodom Sihanouk] talked to me and asked me where I came from, and he also asked me whether I knew him or not, and I said no,” Hem Rith, sitting in the cafeteria at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, said yesterday.
“He told me that he is the king [Norodom Sihanouk]. I was so surprised and scared, but he said ‘don’t be afraid’.”
Hem Rith said her job was not that difficult comparatively, and counts herself as a lucky survivor – her two elder brothers were tortured to death during the Khmer Rouge’s reign. During her visit to the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, the first day of hearings for 2012, Hem Rith said she barely recognised the Royal Palace’s other famous resident.
“I know and used to talk to [ex-Democratic Kampuchea president] Khieu Samphan when I worked in the Royal Palace,” Hem Rith recalled.
“He shouted at me when I asked him if I could stop working as the cook … but he did not fight or torture me, he changed my role from cooking to serving food to the King.
“Khieu Samphan is very old now. He used to be a handsome man, but I hardly recognise him,” she said.
“Khieu Samphan is a strong and cruel person, but I never saw him kill anyone,” Hem Rith said, adding that she was undecided whether the tribunal would be able to deliver justice for all the people killed by the Khmer Rouge.
“I cannot say whether the court can provide the justice for our people or my older brothers, [but] I keep following with this hearing,” she said.
Last week, the tribunal announced it had hit a milestone of more than 100,000 visitors, including a large percentage of victims and civil parties.
7 comments:
This ECCC will face a lot of obsticles from CPP, You Bouleang and Chea Leang and will end up with majority of Cambodian dissappointment.
I agree with Nuon Chea saying that the Communist Party of Kampuchea was under the influence of yuon Hanoi base on the profile and events happening since the creation of the Communist Party of Kampuchea or CPK in 1960 as follow:
CPK or the Communist Party of Kampuchea was created in 1960 under the name of the Workers' Party of Kampuchea to be remained alliance with Hanoi but not under order of Hanoi anymore by :
1. Tou Samouth.
2. Noun Chea.
3. Pol Pot.
4. Ieng Sary.
5. So Phim .
6. And many more of former senior Khmer Viet Minh commander.
Note: Tou Samouth and So Phim played very immportant role in joining former Khmer Viet Minh fighters int the CPK and other played an immportant rol in joining Tamouk and Ke Pok ect.... .
The worker's party was renaming to CPK in 1966 after Tou Samouth was arrested and killed in 1962.
So from the beginning most members and the members of central committee of CPK were former Khmer Viet Minh like Tou Samouth, So Phim , Rhos Nhim.
Without Nuon Chean and Khieu Samphan, Cambodia has already been annexed by Vietnam. Wake up young generation. It is your turn to continue defending our country against Viet
si le viétnam et le gouvernement hun sen sont honnettes ou transparences pourquoi ils sont si craintifs a tribunal c e t c=tribunal international pour les khmers rouges? le gouvernement hun sen manipule ou cré des obstacle sans cesse trop de truc.
9:44 PM,
As much as I don't like YOUN, it is rediculous for you to defending Noun Chea and Khieu Samphan for responsible for the death of 2 millions innocent Khmer people. Viet may be the creator of Khmer Rough, but it is Khmer dump leader like Pol Pot, Sihanouk, Hun Sen etc who allowing the foreiner to take our land or killing their own people exchanging for power. Througout history, we continue to loose our land everytime our leaders seeking assistant from the outsider to fight among ourselve. We always seek assistant from YOUN, Siam, the Chinese and by the time we realize, we need to re-pay our debt. All Khmer need to learn from our history is that we can not depend on other to help us if we want to continue to exist as a counry in Southeast Asia. The sollution is simple, Khmer love Khmer, Khmer help Khmer, and doing it for Khmer.
that is so true that the viet/youn do not want to control cambodia like annexing or colonizing, they had already failed many times in the past when they tried to control, annexing or colonizing cambodia and khmer people. instead, i think, and people who studied cambodian and youn history can tell you this, viet/youn always wanted to ally with khmer people and cambodia so we would fight with them given they took from cambodia the mekong river delta we called khmer krom and koh tral island. i think that was the last khmer territories they can take from cambodia. they cannot take anymore khmer land or khmer territories again, but they do want and need khmer people and cambodia to be their good allies simply because we are their next door neighbors. the thing about viet/youn influence on cambodia or khmer people is actually flowed both ways, meaning khmer can also influence youn and vice versa since they are next door to us when you look on the map of cambodia.
on the other hand, khmer people have a different opinion about viet/youn. first of all, most khmer people do not want to be viet/youn ally, although we have no choice. that's why most khmer peole have mixed feeling about viet/youn all the time in politics especially. maybe it like this, they respect us, we respect them, etc... and i hate to say this, but french didn't help this situation when they colonized cambodia and the indochina pensinula. instead, when french designed our current political boundaries with our neighboring countries of vietnam, laos and thailand, the french did it in a way that cambodia is sort of like a buffer state between thailand and vietnam. when french withdrew or ended their colonization of cambodia, they could of signed off the mekong river delta region and koh tral island either way to cambodia or to vietnam, but we know they chose to signed it off to vietnam instead of cambodia. that's why we now see the mekong river delta region or khmer krom land as known in cambodia and koh tral island as belonging to vietnam now instead of cambodia, you see. yes, it was the french who designed the political map of cambodia and indochina, you know. anyway, that was history now... good to know or understand that, though.
Why yuon Hanoi hate Pol Pot , Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan more than the Khmer vicitms hate them ?
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