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Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- 17 Apr 1975. The fall of Phnom Penh. A convoy of trucks and armoured
personnel carriers commandered by the victorious Khmer Rouge drives
through the city center along the Monivong boulevard, whilst crowds
gather on main avenues to celebrate the end of the war.
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Wednesday, 24 October 2012
By Stuart White
Phnom Penh Post
A
witness and a civil party offered two different perspectives at the
Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday on the evacuation of Phnom Penh in the
aftermath of the Khmer Rouge’s victory in April, 1975.
First,
railway worker Sok Chhin told of the transfer of people through a way
station at Leach, in Pursat province, describing trains carrying about
1,000 people at a time passing through his work area, dropping some
passengers there to be interviewed on their personal history and
transferred to other work sites, and carrying others to work sites in
Battambang province.
“There were different kinds of people from
different age groups: old, young, sick people,” the 67-year-old, who
spent the better part of the day matter-of-factly recounting what he saw
as a railroad repair worker on a 21-kilometre stretch of track in
Pursat, said.
“They would be there for a few days, or even a week, before they could be transferred to other locations.”
According
to Chhin, the wait treated some better than others, with several of
those in transit dying after disembarking at Leach.
“I myself
buried the dead bodies, because the bodies along the railway tracks
decomposed,” he said, adding later that the stench prevented people
working.
Chhin finished his testimony in the afternoon, and
civil party Lay Bunny took the stand to give her own account of the
exodus from Phnom Penh.
“I was pregnant at that time,” she said, describing the mood the city as “chaotic”.
“There
were rockets launched over the Cambodiana Hotel, so my mother did not
send me to the hospital because she was afraid we would [be separated].
“She
asked a midwife, the traditional midwife, to come and deliver the
baby... I had to sustain long labour pains. Unfortunately, my baby died
before it was born.”
Bunny blamed the loss of her child on a
lack of professional medical care, but she had not even fully recovered
when she was forced to leave the city 20 days later by way of a road
crowded with sick people – some still bed-ridden – who had ben forced
out of a nearby hospital.
The road, she said, was dotted with dead bodies.
“We asked what happened to them, and we were told that they had wanted to go back and they were shot.”
Bunny’s testimony will continue today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart White at stuart.white@phnompenhpost.com
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