A book detailing what happened under Khmer Rouge published in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH —  A Cambodian journalist on Thursday launches his new book on the Khmer Rouge aiming to provide the Khmer Rouge Tribunal extra information on the serious child rights violation during the Democratic Kampuchea rule in 1975-79 when some 2 million people died of murder, torture, starvation, sickness, and overwork.

The book with 145 pages in English and 185 pages in Khmer is titled “Moms and Angkar‘s Kids – We dare to smash our parents for Angkar”.

Speaking in a press conference at Club of Cambodian Journalists, Chhay Sophal, Editor-in-Chief of Cambodian News and a long-time journalism trainer, said that the book describes his experiencing with other teenagers living in a ‘Mobile Child Unit’ in Democratic Kampuchea’s ‘killing fields’ regime.

“The book reveals the darken time when my generation and I faced with hard labour without adequate food and health care, death threats, tortures, and murders,” he told the conference.

Sophal said he never wants to make any revenge at the Khmer Rouge Leaders who are now in custody and trial but what he described in the book is aiming to show the truth happened to him and his teen colleagues in that regime.

“I want to share with my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, as well as both Cambodian compatriots and the world’s people, my own memories and experiences living and labouring during that regime” he added

In the book, Sophal also inserted his interviews with a few Khmer Rouge Leaders and cadres and put some parts of their testimonies at the the Khmer Rouge Tribunal from late 2011 to mid 2012. King Father Norodom Sihanouk, Prime Minister Hun Sen, Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, and other foreigners were also quoted in the book.

At the back page of the book, the author quoted Youk Chhang, Director of the Documentation Center Cambodia (DC-CAM), as saying that “I like the book. A very moving true story. The book is emotional but full of inspiration. It takes courage to face the truth”.

While Youk Chhang helped with the author general overview on the book’s contents, Ms. Abby Seiff, American journalist who works for the Cambodia Daily also helped him with English editing, Sophal said.

Parts of the book contents are Phnom Penh Before the Khmer Rouge’s Arrival; Leaving Phnom Penh – 17 April 1975; Arriving in Mom’s Village; Why Did the KR Remove the Urban Population?; Angkar Needs Me; Angkar’s Teens; Angkar’s Young Slaves; Punishments; Strange Wedding; Angkar’s Wounded Dog; Mom Saves Angkar’s Wounded Dog; Fleeing When Vietnamese Troops March in.

The book also brief about the trial of Prime Minister and Brother Number 1 Pol Pot and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ieng Sary in 1979 and brief biographies of a few top Khmer Rouge Leaders such as Head of State Khieu Samphan, Brother Number 2 Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, as well as Duch, the chief of the S21 torture center of Tuol Sleng.

It is the second book that Chhay Sophal has published this year. On 5 January, he launched a 346-page book entitled “Hun Sen – Power & Politics in the Khmer History over 40 Years” which he said the book describes about power and politics in Cambodia between 1970 and 2011. <Cambodia News/Heng Neang>

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