A Change of Guard

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Monday 17 May 2010

The Thai massacre of Khmer refugees at Dangrek Mountains in 1979-1980


The poster of Khmer refugees dying at Dangrek Mountains in 1979-1980.

By Anonymous

I was there as a 10 year old. Here is a first hand account what happened in Dangrek Mountains.

They [the Thais] dumped us at around 12:00am, after a 7-8 hours bus ride from Nong Chan Camp. Everything was pitched dark. The Thais used the cover of darkness to cover their crime.

The next morning we along with thousands of other people were forced at gun point by Khmer Surin army rangers. Yes, these rangers can speak Khmer with heavy accent. So think twice before you consider these Khmer Surin rangers brothers. At one spot, I witnessed 30 ft. away these thugs shot a man and wife because they refused to evacuate immediately.

As soon as we arrived on the Cambodian side, we constantly hear mines went off, followed by screaming. Under some trees there was two or three dead bodies wrapped in blanket as people did not have proper tool give proper burial.

I witnessed in one ditch pile of bodies and blood flowing instead of water. The stentch was horrific. One dead body of a woman still clinching to her dead baby in her arm. This woman apparently went to look for woods to make fire for cooking but step on a mine.

I heard the first wave of these refugees to be sent to Dangrek Mountains were Cham minority, follow by Chinese. These people suffer the most because they had no clue where the mines were laid. My family and I must have been the 4th or 5th wave of people so we knew somewhat where some of the mines were because they were marked by people before us. Also by this time there was a well trodden path where we know it was safe to walk on.

Personally saw one man with both legs blown up to his knee. His blood soaked body was dried. His eyes barely open begging for water.

This is a typical scene in Dangrek Mountains. Sometimes fights broke out among refugees because people were trying to get out the same time on a small road in the heat.

As we made our way out of that field, corpses of young and old, man and woman litter the field. Cambodians died like animals.

It took us about a month to walk back to Cambodia. The first town we settled for short while was Kompong Thom. The gov't re-settled us to a village. Shortly after my parents made a second try and was successful. We are now in the US.

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