The Killing Fields of Cambodia: Surviving a Living Hell by Sokphal Din

Author:Sokphal Din [Din, Sokphal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789493056749
Publisher: Amsterdam Publishers
Published: 2020-10-31T22:00:00+00:00

15

While I was away working at the youth labour camp my brother Sokbonn was caught stealing pumpkin leaves. He was eight years old and so thin that the blue veins running across his body were bigger than his muscles, and his ribs stuck out like a skeleton’s. Hunger had made his hair fall out. Like all of us, to soothe his hunger Sokbonn scavenged for leaves to add to our rice pot, but unfortunately, he stumbled upon the wrong vegetable patch.

When he was walking along the edge of a field, he picked a few flowers and some leaves of the edible pumpkin plant. A man who had noticed Sokbonn picking the pumpkin leaves, suddenly grabbed him, tied his arms together and began to beat him. After Sokbonn cried and begged him to stop, the man dragged him over to a vicious red ant’s nest and forced him to stand on it.

Fortunately, one of the villagers who saw what was happening, ran straight to my mother to tell her. She rushed to find Sokbonn, who was still tied up and standing on the red ant’s nest. By now, Sokbonn’s legs were covered by the biting red ants. The boy was crying, being tortured by the ants that were climbing towards his chest and face. Mother began to untie Sokbonn and started screaming at the man, “How could you do this? He is only a child, he was hungry, can’t you see? He is thin and so hungry that he hardly has the energy to walk. How could you punish my son? Release him now.”

The man was surprised at being challenged and scolded by my mother. He said to her, “How dare you talk to me that way old woman. Maybe it is because you used to live in Phnom Penh with your powerful husband from the capitalist army?”

The accusation could easily have led to my mother’s execution, but she was not afraid and retorted, “Oh, you said that I am the wife of a lieutenant? How do you know that? Does that mean that you are working with my husband and working under him too? If I am called to stand in front of Angkar, I will tell them that you are a republic soldier too. You won’t be safe either.”

He did not say anymore and without another word, he let my mother further untie Sokbonn and take him home. She was so angry – she felt like she had been possessed by a demon to have the power to fight against the man like that. My brave mother was not afraid of him even if it meant facing death. She loved her children and to see anyone do that was unbearable.

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