Tuol Sleng prison staff eating communally [under the watchful eyes of the innocent comrade Duch (right)?] (Picture by:Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Archives)Hunger During Pol Pot’s Regime
06-12-2007
By Layum
Rasmei Kampuchea
Banteay Meanchey: “Bravo to the Angkar (revolutionary organization) moving forwards through leaps and bounds! Bravo to the prosperous Communist Party of Kampuchea! Committed to produce 3 tons per hectare! 5 tons per hectare! 8 tons!” It was the scream blared though speakers trying to stuff the ears of Cambodian victims under the Khmer Rouge regime.
These are some words victims who have gone through the Democratic Kampuchea regime heard almost everyday when they “went into the fields or working site” or during the “lifestyle meeting” or revolutionary assembly. They also heard, “Having rice means having everything! In the new regime, the people are the bosses. No castes! No rice! No Poor! The Angkar makes the people and the country prosperous...”
In 2007 Aunt [Sart] is 53 years old. She is the wife of Former Cadre Seng Dieb, a mechanic of the Khmer Rouge era in Domnak Trab cooperative, Ta Loa commune, Bakan district, in Region 2 (Porsat Province). “At the time my husband was a cadre who could have enough food and led a moderately better life since he worked with machines and Chinese specialists. However, living in the cooperative, I lacked rice. My knees were as bony as my head,” she said.
She said that her cooperative had been divided into three workforces. “In the first workforce, everyone had to hoe the ground and shoulder 10 cubic metres of land per day. The first workforce received 7 cans of rice for 10 people per meal time. The second workforce had to hoe the ground and shoulder 5 cubic metres of land per day and received 3.5 cans of rice for 10 people. And the third workforce hoed the ground and shouldered 3 cubic metres per day and received 2 cans of rice for 10 people," she recalled.
"Either strong or weak people or even people who do not work need to eat. At the time I was so hungry, I imagined that if I had had enough rice and food to eat, I would have eaten to death like "Ta Chou Chok" (a name of a character in the Buddhist tale)," said Aunt Sart.
The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) has published an article entitled "Food is the God" during Democratic Kampuchea regime. Likewise, Cambodian Red Cross's President Bun Rany Hun Sen agreed that the starving people considered food as the God. The ones who give food to the starving people have great good deed on them.
Besides four elements such as water, soil, fire, and wind which help human beings, animals, plants and other living things to survive, there are only food and water (nutrition). During the Democratic Kampuchea time, the starvation and food reduction were the most terrible but effective ways to kill people and many people. The ideology of the Khmer Rouge said, "The new regime is pure. There are neither the rich nor the poor." It was true that the people and soldiers did not have anything, but the cadres and leaders received more food and lived in a far better condition.
The Khmer Rouge Tribunal have arrested Kaing Guek Eav, former Tuol Sleng prison's chief, Nuon Chea, former president of People's Representative Assembly, Ieng Sary, [former] deputy-prime minister, minister of foreign affairs, and his wife, Ieng Thirith, [former] social affairs minister, and Khieu Samphan, former president of State Presidium of the Democratic Kampuchea regime, and detained them provisionally in the tribunal's compound in Kantoak village, Angk Snuol district, Kandal province. The detention facility is a building which has a tiled roof and mattress bed and is equipped with air-conditioning system. Delicious foods are given. Those accused of the genocidal crimes and crimes against humanity, receiving rights to medical care and have been treated at Calmette Hospital, the most modern hospital in Cambodia, where poor and average Cambodians cannot afford to get health care over there.
Long Thy, former Khmer Rouge soldier in Anlong Veng, said that comparing to the "3 years 8 months and 20 days" regime, in which people lived and ate miserably, although the Khmer Rouge leaders were being detained, they were still more fortunate. "They sleep in air-conditioned rooms and have enough food to eat and electricity to use," he said.
This is not a comparison to make them to receive the situation between 1975 and 1979, but at the present time 80 percents of current Cambodian population do not have comfortable shelter similar to the detention facility the surviving former Khmer Rouge leaders are being detained.
Pol Leang, Pailin municipal governor, once said that at present his people were growing rice and plants. "They grow them and get yields. It is different from before 1979 when people were trying nearly to death, but had no rights to eat," he said.
When Pol Pot was in power in 1977, he told a Yugoslavian newspaper which made a special interview with him that the Democratic Kampuchea regime did lack foods and that it was the reason for why his policy focused on agriculture, building irrigation system and growing rice, in order to yield enough rice to eat. “However, the shortages were caused by the even distribution of rice to all the people,” [he said].
So Nath, a former struggling Khmer Rouge, who is currently the chief of Trapeang Prey commune, Anlong Veng district, said that during that regime there had been enough food in some places, but that in some other places was due to not enough food, the people were starved to death.
Most of the victims who could survive the Khmer Rouge regime acknowledged that the killings of people had been almost not haunting and miserable since people could die immediately, but that the overwork and insufficient food with no nutrition had been the torture and devastation. The Khmer Rouge collapsed due to the weakening of the people (physical weakness). The Khmer Rouge often added sugar in the party or revolutionary wedding. They knew that "nutrition and calories" are very important for human beings, but they intentionally starved people in order to make them weak so that they would be easy to control. Regarding the four basic rights, the Khmer Rouge destroyed firstly the right to survive.
The “secret Angkar” regime completely closed the doors of the country. There were no Red Cross and World Food Programme (WFP) to share food to the starving people during the Khmer Rouge regime at all. After 1979 the Khmer Rouge soldiers who were struggling in order to return into power and fighting to expel Vietnamese soldiers controlled again the distributions of food, medicine and other supplies from the United Nations and various international humanitarian organizations. However, at the time they provided the foods to the people since if they still practiced the 1975-1979 policy, the people would not struggle with the Khmer Rouge movement anymore.
"The restriction of food was exactly the objective of the high-level [Angkar]," said a former Khmer Rouge cadre.
Unofficial Translation -Extracted from Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol. 15, #4454, Wednesday, December 05, 2007
These are some words victims who have gone through the Democratic Kampuchea regime heard almost everyday when they “went into the fields or working site” or during the “lifestyle meeting” or revolutionary assembly. They also heard, “Having rice means having everything! In the new regime, the people are the bosses. No castes! No rice! No Poor! The Angkar makes the people and the country prosperous...”
In 2007 Aunt [Sart] is 53 years old. She is the wife of Former Cadre Seng Dieb, a mechanic of the Khmer Rouge era in Domnak Trab cooperative, Ta Loa commune, Bakan district, in Region 2 (Porsat Province). “At the time my husband was a cadre who could have enough food and led a moderately better life since he worked with machines and Chinese specialists. However, living in the cooperative, I lacked rice. My knees were as bony as my head,” she said.
She said that her cooperative had been divided into three workforces. “In the first workforce, everyone had to hoe the ground and shoulder 10 cubic metres of land per day. The first workforce received 7 cans of rice for 10 people per meal time. The second workforce had to hoe the ground and shoulder 5 cubic metres of land per day and received 3.5 cans of rice for 10 people. And the third workforce hoed the ground and shouldered 3 cubic metres per day and received 2 cans of rice for 10 people," she recalled.
"Either strong or weak people or even people who do not work need to eat. At the time I was so hungry, I imagined that if I had had enough rice and food to eat, I would have eaten to death like "Ta Chou Chok" (a name of a character in the Buddhist tale)," said Aunt Sart.
The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) has published an article entitled "Food is the God" during Democratic Kampuchea regime. Likewise, Cambodian Red Cross's President Bun Rany Hun Sen agreed that the starving people considered food as the God. The ones who give food to the starving people have great good deed on them.
Besides four elements such as water, soil, fire, and wind which help human beings, animals, plants and other living things to survive, there are only food and water (nutrition). During the Democratic Kampuchea time, the starvation and food reduction were the most terrible but effective ways to kill people and many people. The ideology of the Khmer Rouge said, "The new regime is pure. There are neither the rich nor the poor." It was true that the people and soldiers did not have anything, but the cadres and leaders received more food and lived in a far better condition.
The Khmer Rouge Tribunal have arrested Kaing Guek Eav, former Tuol Sleng prison's chief, Nuon Chea, former president of People's Representative Assembly, Ieng Sary, [former] deputy-prime minister, minister of foreign affairs, and his wife, Ieng Thirith, [former] social affairs minister, and Khieu Samphan, former president of State Presidium of the Democratic Kampuchea regime, and detained them provisionally in the tribunal's compound in Kantoak village, Angk Snuol district, Kandal province. The detention facility is a building which has a tiled roof and mattress bed and is equipped with air-conditioning system. Delicious foods are given. Those accused of the genocidal crimes and crimes against humanity, receiving rights to medical care and have been treated at Calmette Hospital, the most modern hospital in Cambodia, where poor and average Cambodians cannot afford to get health care over there.
Long Thy, former Khmer Rouge soldier in Anlong Veng, said that comparing to the "3 years 8 months and 20 days" regime, in which people lived and ate miserably, although the Khmer Rouge leaders were being detained, they were still more fortunate. "They sleep in air-conditioned rooms and have enough food to eat and electricity to use," he said.
This is not a comparison to make them to receive the situation between 1975 and 1979, but at the present time 80 percents of current Cambodian population do not have comfortable shelter similar to the detention facility the surviving former Khmer Rouge leaders are being detained.
Pol Leang, Pailin municipal governor, once said that at present his people were growing rice and plants. "They grow them and get yields. It is different from before 1979 when people were trying nearly to death, but had no rights to eat," he said.
When Pol Pot was in power in 1977, he told a Yugoslavian newspaper which made a special interview with him that the Democratic Kampuchea regime did lack foods and that it was the reason for why his policy focused on agriculture, building irrigation system and growing rice, in order to yield enough rice to eat. “However, the shortages were caused by the even distribution of rice to all the people,” [he said].
So Nath, a former struggling Khmer Rouge, who is currently the chief of Trapeang Prey commune, Anlong Veng district, said that during that regime there had been enough food in some places, but that in some other places was due to not enough food, the people were starved to death.
Most of the victims who could survive the Khmer Rouge regime acknowledged that the killings of people had been almost not haunting and miserable since people could die immediately, but that the overwork and insufficient food with no nutrition had been the torture and devastation. The Khmer Rouge collapsed due to the weakening of the people (physical weakness). The Khmer Rouge often added sugar in the party or revolutionary wedding. They knew that "nutrition and calories" are very important for human beings, but they intentionally starved people in order to make them weak so that they would be easy to control. Regarding the four basic rights, the Khmer Rouge destroyed firstly the right to survive.
The “secret Angkar” regime completely closed the doors of the country. There were no Red Cross and World Food Programme (WFP) to share food to the starving people during the Khmer Rouge regime at all. After 1979 the Khmer Rouge soldiers who were struggling in order to return into power and fighting to expel Vietnamese soldiers controlled again the distributions of food, medicine and other supplies from the United Nations and various international humanitarian organizations. However, at the time they provided the foods to the people since if they still practiced the 1975-1979 policy, the people would not struggle with the Khmer Rouge movement anymore.
"The restriction of food was exactly the objective of the high-level [Angkar]," said a former Khmer Rouge cadre.
Unofficial Translation -Extracted from Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol. 15, #4454, Wednesday, December 05, 2007
