His story

After nearly a year in Cambodia and after reading numerous books and visiting Toul Sleng Prison and the Killing Fields at Choueng Ek, I am still struggling to understand what the people of this country have had to endure in their recent history.

In a bid to try and understand the psyche of the people here a little better, or just plain morbid curiosity, whenever I get an appropriate opportunity I ask the people I meet about their experiences during the Khmer Rouge regime. It often happens to be school directors who show me the bullet holes in their school buildings or tell me of how the school grounds were once a battle field or hospital or a prison or how landmines once littered the playground. I have also been told the stories from a teacher who remembers being 10 years old and helping to dig the earth from what has now become the beautiful Tropieng Tmar reservoir. He remembers seeing people killed on the very spot we stood at the time. He said that many people became ill from working such long hours under the sun and not having enough to eat or drink but the Khmer Rouge refused to believe they were unwell. Another director told me how he watched the Khmer Rouge cut the liver from someone’s back while they were still alive, to cook and eat. The tales are all told as if they happened yesterday with smiling faces this nation is famous for.

I have been aware that Mr Sophan has a story to tell and although always promising to tell it he has not until now. One quiet afternoon in the office this week I reminded him of his promise and got the short version of his story at last. He has promised more and admitted to filling 4 books with writing about is life at that time.

Mr Sophan grew up in Phnom Srok district and went to High School in Sisaphon as no high schools existed in Phnom Srok back then. He didn’t complete his Grade 9 exams as he signed up, at 16 years old, to Lon Nol’s government army. He went to fight in Preah Veng province, fighting in many battles and killing many men. However, the Khmer Rouge army was strong at that time and he was captured and imprisoned in the countryside. He was one of 800 in the prison and one of only 60 to survive it. He worked hard, did what he was told and kept quiet and was only close to being killed when he started teaching the alphabet in the prison and the Khmer Rouge accused him of being well educated. After negotiating with the cook for some food, he escaped the prison.

He lived in the forest in a resistance force with about 30 others for a while, fighting against the Khmer Rouge. After the liberation of the country he headed back to Phnom Srok. His father was dead. The Vietnamese ‘liberators’ helped set up commune and village leaders which Mr Sophan put himself forward for but was turned down due to his strong involvement with the army.

It is only a small sliver of his story and I’m itching to know more, my head buzzing with questions to fill the gaps, find out what he witnessed, what he did, how he felt at the time. After telling me this, through a translator, he asked me what I thought of him; his character and attitude. I was almost speechless and told him that I had never met a man like him before.