Visit to Meas Srey and Prom Chea at Svay Rieng Prison

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy with the villagers in Koh Kban Kandal village (All photos: SRP)

VISIT TO MEAS SREY AND PROM CHEA AT SVAY RIENG PRISON
24 MARCH 2010

By SRP MP Tioulong Saumura

Along with 18 other SRP Members of Parliament and 15 Party leaders, I went to Svay Rieng province on 24 March 2010 to pay a visit to victims of Vietnamese border encroachment Meas Srey and Prom Chea. The convoy was impressive, 6 cars crossing the ferry at Neak Loeung attracted the attention of everyone. I heard a ferry employee tell a colleague: These are Sam Rainsy people ("puok Sam Rainsy"), they don't forget their people ("puok ké") and are not afraid to visit them even in jail.

Leaving the HQ at 6:30 am, we arrived at the province capital at 9am, one full hour ahead of the time slot granted -- 10:00 to 10:30. We stopped at SRP Svay Rieng office, had coffee or other refreshments at the coffee stand of the owner of the office building: she rents the villa to us, lives in a bungalow behind and keeps a coffee stand in front of the property. Province chief Seng Mardi phones the prison officers who say that we can go now.

In preparation for our visit, the street to the Svay Rieng Provincial prison is blocked about 200 meters before the prison gates, a former school built under the French protectorate that has received very little maintenance or repair since then. In reply to our request to visit Meas Srey and Prom Chea, the Tribunal had granted permission for 5 visitors.
Since the day before, we had decided that we would give priority to medical doctors, as Mardi had reported to us that their health conditions were not good. So, MD and MP for Phnom Penh Ly Srey Vyna, MD and MP for Kompong Cham Kim Suor Phirith, Nurse and MP for Kandal Pot Pov, Party Spokesman and MP for Phnom Penh Yim Sovann and Radio Free Asia reporter Sok Serei drove through the prison gates in the car of Vyna that contained full equipment for medical examination and lab tests.

Unfortunately, prison officers refused to let her bring in any of her instruments. I remember last time I went there, they kept even my handbag.

After a thorough identity check, the five visitors are allowed in the garden of the prison where wooden tables and benches are arranged under a corrugated iron roof. This time, nobody cried.
Meas Srey hugged her visitors, she seemed in good health and in good spirit. She worried only about her eldest son who was arrested by the Cambodian police when crossing the border to Vietnam at night to sell cow dung he had collected. He needs the money from this sale to pay his teacher, Meas Srey tells her visitors. Yim Sovann promises that he will find a way to fund the schooling of her two sons without them having to cross the border anymore. She was reassured and expressed her faith in her rights. Pot Pov hands-out to Meas Srey an envelope containing 800,000 riels donated by SRP overseas members to help her pay for her needs while in jail. She took 140,000 riels out and asked Pot Pov to give the remaining to her mother.
Prom Chea suffers from joint pains, and his stomach pains do not allow doctors to use anti-inflammatory drugs. The prison doctor takes care of him, his wife paid a total of 110$ for treatment from 6 to 12 March. I saw the bills from the pharmacy. Vyna is frustrated because she cannot perform a complete medical examination nor take blood samples to test, but she manages to figure out which medicines she should leave to alleviate the pains of Prom Chea. She also succeeds in convincing the prison officers to let Prom Chea walk in the prison yard more regularly, as a way for him to exercise and decrease his joint pains. Pot Pov hands-out to Prom Chea an envelope with the same amount of money, he thanks her with tears in his voice and returns the envelope to her, requesting that she give the totality to his wife.

Both of them requested a gas-cooker to cook their meals. Yim Sovann said that he would leave money to their families for that purpose.
After our 5 colleagues were done at the prison, we all went to Koh Kbal Kandal village where the mother of Meas Srey and the wife of Prom Chea live. There, we meet the mother, wife, children and grandchildren of Prom Chea, and Mrs Prom Chea tells us that Prom Chea was arrested on the day of his daughter's wedding! We also meet the sons of Meas Srey, roundcheeked and shy Sam Chanly, 14 ("chhnam choot") and Sam Krauch, 10 ("chhnam raung"). Vorn Yen from Massachusetts said that he would collect funds and send them to the children's grandmother for their schooling. I said that I would buy all the cow dung the two will collect, no need for them to cross the border at 11pm anymore. Each bag costs 2,000 riels or 50 US cents.


SRP secretary general Ke Sovannaroth gave the envelopes to Mrs Prom Chea and to the mother of Meas Srey. She also gave another envelope containing 50,000 riels to pay for the gas-cooker, one for each prisoner.

During our meeting at Meas Srey's house, the (CPP-appointed) village chief and other local officials were looking-on from the neighboring house. SRP Head of Security department and MP for Kratie Long Ry invited them to join us inside the small plot of land of Meas Srey. At first, they looked reluctant but at the end, they joined the conversation and smiled. To all, Yim Sovann explained that president Sam Rainsy was going to release irrefutable evidence that shows that both Meas Srey and Prom Chea's rights were grossly violated, and as a consequence, they should be freed soon.

Then it was time to say good bye. The mother of Meas Srey asked me not to wait too long before coming to see her again. Mrs Prom Chea realized that I was the wife of Sam Rainsy and asked me to convey to him her gratitude for his fight for her land rights.

On my way back, I replayed in my mind all the day's events, the people's faces and feelings. This day reminded me of the question of a journalist who interviewed some of our female activists for whom I translated from Khmer to English. She was so impressed by their courage and asked: "What gave you the courage and energy to stand-up and oppose intimidation, possible retaliation, danger? What makes you believe that you can succeed?" The activists were made voiceless by the question. They had no answer because there is NOTHING that gives anyone the courage to face violence from the men in power. But the feeling of revolt before oppression and injustice frees us from fear and gives us the courage to say NO, enough is enough.

I explained to the journalist that freedom fighters are no university professors, they do not think, analyze, weigh pros and cons, premeditate. They scream and shout, they act and react, they fight, again and again. No assurance of victory but just the need to express our revolt, the need to do something what ever happens.

This is where human beings are different from animals who just backtrack in front of the stick and go ahead attracted by the carrot. Human beings do not accept to live in slavery.

Tioulong Saumura
26 March 2010