Pictures: So Sary (top) who claimed to be Khieu Samphan's sister-in-law and 100-year old Yeay Ram (bottom) who claimed to be Khieu Samphan's mother-in-law.
Posted date : 19th December 2007
Source : Rasmei Kampuchea By : Oka
Rovieng-Preah Vihear: Becoming the wife of the president of the Khmer Rouge State Presidium from a girl roaming around, So Saroeun, Khieu Samphan's wife, was born in Kok Poun, Rohas, Rovieng, Preah Vihear.
So Saroeun's revolutionary name was Comrade Rin. Although no sources have ever claimed about the year Khieu Samphan got married, what his wife's name is, or how many children he has, the people living in Rovieng district in Phreah Vihear province said Khieu Samphan's wife was So Saroeun, alias Comrade Rin, and that they had four children. So Savoeun has got a 100-year-old mother and 6 siblings who are currently living in Kok Poun, Rohas, Rovieng. The cover-up of the identity has made the public almost not aware of whom Khieu Samphan's wife is at the present time. In September Rasmei Kampuchea's reporters traveled to the hometown of Khieu Samphan's wife and interviewed her mother and one of her siblings.
Kok Poun village lies 3 kilometers southeast of Rovieng district. It is a village with hundreds of houses amongst which some are old in style. There are tall fruit trees like coconuts and milk fruit trees. All of these show that the village has long been established.
The 100-year-old grandmother who was in her senility was sitting and surrounded by two other old ladies who are her daughters. Yeay Ram is the mother of So Saroeun, alias Comrade Rin, and is also Khieu Samphan's mother-in-law. "My daughter Saroeun and my son-in-law Khieu Samphan are really poor," said Yeay Ram with an unstable feeling. So Sary, 63, So Saroeun's older sister, said, "Saroeun, my sister, left the hometown since 1970 in order to work as an art performer for the Khmer Rouge army and disappeared since then." "After 1975 we saw So Saroeun visit home two times. She came alone and did not say she had husband named Khieu Samphan," she added. So Sary said that after 1979 she disappeared and it was not until the Khmer Rouge integrated with the government that she knew her sister So Saroeun was Khieu Samphan's wife and had 4 children, two sons and two daughters. So Sary said Khieu Samphan had used to visit his mother-in-law two times in very secret travel. "In the first visit, he only stayed for one night while in the second he stayed for two nights and returned back," [she said]. However, Rovieng's district authorities denied they had known that Khieu Samphan had ever visited his wife's birthplace.
Leng Keang, who used to live in Rovieng district and study in Rorveang District primary school in 1970, said So Saroeun had used to study in the same school with him, but that So Saroeun stopped and fled into the jungle to struggle with the Khmer Rouge soldiers. “Her information was lost until she was re-known as Khieu Samphan's wife,” he said.
Real biography of So Saroeun, alias Comrade Rin, has not been revealed yet. She is claimed by the villagers to be a "total revolutionary person” since she was thinking about her mother and siblings very little, whilst she was very fortunate to be married to the president of the State Presidium of the Democratic Kampuchea regime.
Unofficial Translation-Extracted from Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol. 15, #4466, Wednesday, December 19, 2007
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