Chileng Pa as a young man.
Escaping the Khmer Rouge
A Cambodian Memoir
CHILENG PA
with CAROL MORTLAND
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
Publisher’s note: This book was written over the years 1999 to 2005 in close collaboration between Chileng Pa and Carol Mortland. Chileng Pa died in April 2005 as the manuscript was being completed.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE
BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE
e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2828-8
©2008 Carol A. Mortland. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover photograph ©2007 Shutterstock
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Dedication by Chileng Pa
(2004)
This book is a simple strand of remembrance, a document from memory created for the young generations of Cambodians and others in this world. I write it to raise the awareness of a dark period in Cambodian history, when the dictatorial, strong arm of the Khmer Rouge ruled the country for three years, eight months, and twenty days. The rule brought nothing but tragedy to my fellow countrymen.
I write this to honor the memory and spirit of all the innocent Cambodians who sacrificed their lives defending their nationality and the right to practice their religion. Among them are my wife Devi, my son Sokhanarith, and nine members of my wife’s family, my beloved grandmother Sophal Prong, my stepmother Neary, and more than two million other kind-hearted, peace-loving souls.
I dedicate this book to their spirits.
I dedicate this book also to my wife, Chan, my daughter Sokhary, and my son Sokchea, who allowed me to care for them, feed them, caress and love them in the life I was grateful to have after the horrors of Cambodia. I am grateful for the support and love they and the rest of my family gave to me and accepted from me in the United States. Thank you.
Acknowledgments
This book is my first experience at writing a book. I was filled with anxiety and fear when I started the actual writing. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Carol A. Mortland, who is my wonderful sponsor. She read my drafts and made corrections to them, and encouraged me when I felt depressed by my memories.
I also want to express my appreciation to the friends who have helped with this writing while I was in prison. We were in a difficult situation, but they put aside their own concerns to assist me in finding the English words I needed to tell my story.
Then, I would say thank you in advance to you, the reader, for your interest in finding out what happened in the country of Cambodia when it was governed by the Khmer Rouge regime, and what happened to me in my lifetime. Thank you for taking your time to read my true story.
Most importantly, I must thank my wife, Chan, my daughter, my son, my brothers, sisters-in-law, and brothers-in-law for your constant love and support, no matter the circumstances of our lives. I thank my beloved friend and abbot of my temple, extended family, and friends and colleagues, both in Cambodia and America. You gave me life again after the Pol Pot years. You listened to me, argued with me, cared for me, loved me. I will never forget you.
—Chileng Pa, 2004
My gratitude goes first to Chileng Pa for telling his story to me and allowing me to finish it for him, and to his family, for permitting its publication. I thank Chileng’s family: Chan, the woman Chileng loved first and last; his daughter, Sokhary, and son, Sokchea; the brothers of his youth with whom he was joyously reunited in the refugee camp and who have remained his responsibility until they had to take responsibility for him after his illness, Meng, Mhang, and Leang; his wife’s sisters, Chandy and Chanthol, who continue to “rule” us all; his foster children; his brothers-in-law; and his brothers’ wives.
I want to also thank Chileng’s American prison comrades and teachers who helped him write his story. These amazing people assisted him in writing and rewriting his story. I wish I knew your names. Thank you, for listening to him and honoring his story with your interest, advice, and knowledge.
My thanks to those who assisted in this book’s creation. I thank the Cambodians who taught me about their history, culture, and lives and thus incurred my commitment to Cambodia’s stories. I thank my biological family for their strength and interest, my sister, Annette Gililland, and brother, Tom Mortland, who attended Chileng’s funeral ceremonies; and students, colleagues, friends, and family who reviewed the manuscript and made suggestions, including Drs. Linda Kosa-Postl and Caroline Hartse. I’m grateful to Dr. Chris Byrne for creating the map.
As always, I thank my colleague, Dr. Judy Ledgerwood, for her knowledge, assistance, and friendship, and her husband, Un Kheang, for the same. Personally, without my family, how could I do anything?
—Carol Mortland
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface by Carol Mortland
Cast of Characters
Chronology
Introduction by Carol Mortland
1. • My Good Life
2. • Love at First Sight
3. • Becoming an Adult in a Country at War
4. • Serendipity and Separation
5. • Hope and Heartbreak
6. • “Liberation”
7. • Bamboo Grave
8. • A Poem for Grandmother
9. • Witness to Death
10. • The Worst Night of All
11. • A Fearful Escape to Vietnam
12. • A New Life in Cambodia, Thailand, and America
13. • An Interruption to This Story
Epilogue by Carol Mortland
Glossary
Suggested Reading
List of Names and Terms
Preface
by Carol Mortland
Chileng is not the real name of the man whose story follows, at least not the name by which he was known in America. In deference to the wishes of his wife and daughter and the privacy of his family, I have used pseudonyms to relay the story of my Cambodian brother to you. With the exception of myself and several historic and academic figures, I’ve used pseudonyms for those who have been part of his life.
Using pseudonyms is curiously appropriate in writing about Chileng, for name changes have tracked his life. When he was born, he was given his family name, Pa, and was called Chileng after a type of gecko. Later, he was nicknamed “Leng” by his schoolmates.
Living in the hell created by the Cambodian communists, he changed his name to Thy to conceal his identity as a soldier for the previous government. When he fled to Vietnam, he changed his name to Lam to prevent the Khmer Rouge from discovering his whereabouts and demanding his return.
In the refugee camps, he learned of a potential sponsor living in the United States named Duong Sang. Hoping this man would become his sponsor and thinking his name was Song rather than Sang, Chileng changed his name to Samol Song so they would appear to be relatives. Duong Sang did, indeed, become his sponsor, so Chileng’s name in America became Samol Sang.
Many years later, he became number 27490-086, to the astonishment of his family and community, not to mention his American friends and colleagues. In the end, Chileng wanted his book to be written under his birth name, Chileng Pa or, in the Cambodian manner, Pa Chileng, thus bringing his life full circle—at least symbolically.
While pse
udonyms are appropriate for writing about Chileng, I regret their use.
Pseudonyms shield the true honor I believe this story sheds on Chileng and his families: those lost in Cambodia and those alive in America. They reflect the ordinary and the extraordinary of human life, in both ordinary and extraordinary times. They were weak and strong, fragile and brash, thin and fat, poor and rich. Always, they loved one another and life, not in a sentimental manner but in a complex, enthusiastic, and vibrant way.
I want to add another word about names and naming. When I was with Chileng, I was struck by Cambodians’ ubiquitous use of kinship terms. Not only in Chileng’s childhood community of Chinese Cambodians, many of whom were extended family, but in all of Cambodia, it is usual for people to address one another by kin terms. People the age of one’s grandparents are called by grandparent terms; people the age of one’s parents are called aunts and uncles; and those of one’s own generation by sibling terms. Thus, Chileng referred to many of his friends as “brother” or “sister.”
Informally and intimately, the term people have used most often in addressing Chileng is bong, literally meaning “elder.” It was used first by his siblings, who added bro, calling him “elder brother,” then by his childhood mates for whom bong meant “friend.” Later, friends, colleagues, and fellow policemen and soldiers also called him bong. After his marriage, his wife used bong as a term of respect which Cambodian wives have traditionally used in addressing their husbands.
This term of intimacy, respect, and affection became perversely transformed in the mouths of the Khmer Rouge to mean “comrade.” It may have had that meaning when they talked with one another, but when they used it to address their subjugated population, it held an antipodal meaning—antithetical to respect, the polar opposite of love.
How ironic that the Khmer Rouge used the same terms of familiarity and affection with people they treated in the most brutal of ways. After typing the word bong repeatedly and imagining Chileng saying the word again and again to the Khmer Rouge, I often wondered that these words hadn’t lost their meaning. How could one use “brother,” “sister,” “uncle” repeatedly to people one hated and not have those words contaminated? How could one use the word bong with one’s brothers and friends and not remember having said the same word thousands of times to the detested Khmer Rouge? I asked Chileng once about this, but he couldn’t understand my question. Why couldn’t the same terms have such different meanings?
When Chileng escaped Cambodia, he again heard the word in its traditional meaning. When he married Chan, bong regained its richness, its hue deepened by his in-laws and brothers. Chileng was now bong to an expanding circle of family and friends who depended on him. I was fortunate to be added to that company. Other than “father” and “baown,” the term he used to address his wife, bong was his favorite term of address.
Cast of Characters
Aimee Brel — professor at Chileng’s secondary school
Ath — economic chief of Prayap village
Bopha — female resident of Prayap village
Bunthy — Chileng’s younger sister
Chan — Chileng’s second wife
Chandy — Chan’s eldest sister
Chanthol — Chan’s second elder sister
Chea — traveler met on evacuation out of Phnom Penh
Cheng — Chan’s youngest brother
Chileng Pa — Chileng’s birth name
Chum — police lieutenant in Phnom Penh
Chung — oxcart driver with whom Chileng lived for awhile
Dara — Chileng’s friend in Phnom Penh and at the Police Academy
Devi — Chileng’s first wife
Duk — prisoner in Vietnamese border camp
Duong Sang — Chileng’s namesake and sponsor in America
Eng — captain at military headquarters in Phnom Penh
Huot — Khmer Rouge canal worksite chief
Kanika — Uncle Chung’s wife
Kany — Chileng’s mother
Keang Pa — Chileng’s father
Khan — worker at the canal worksite
Kim — Chileng’s mother-in-law, Devi’s mother
Kosaul [Aul] — Chileng’s neighbor in Prayap
Lam — Chileng’s alias in Vietnam
Leang — Chileng’s youngest brother
Leng — Chileng’s childhood nickname
Lim — female resident of Prayap village
Mari — childhood friend of Chileng and Chan
Meng — Chileng’s first younger brother
Mhang — Chileng’s second younger brother
Monida — Khmer Rouge female guerrilla
Monsieur Pa — Chileng’s childhood nickname
Mutha — Khmer Rouge transportation leader for Prayap village
Narin Lorn — captain with the Pailin sheriff’s department
Navi — Chan’s mother
Neary — Chileng’s stepmother
Nep — Devi’s uncle, resident of Prayap village
Nim — friend with whom Chileng escaped to Thailand
Noch — Chileng’s friend in Phnom Penh and at the Police Academy
Ong — Chileng’s father-in-law, Devi’s father
Pheng — childhood friend of Chileng and Chan
Pa — Chileng’s grandfather
Pong — Khmer Rouge soldier —
Proeung — Prayap villager
Rann — Devi’s first younger brother
Samnang — Devi’s second younger brother
Samol Song — Chileng’s alias in America
Saran Than — Chileng’s sponsor in America
Sareth — friend with whom Chileng escaped to Thailand
Sean — Khmer Rouge village leader of Prayap —
Sina — drill sergeant at the Kompong Chhnang Police Academy
Siphal — Devi’s young sister
Sokchea — son of Chileng and Chan
Sokhanarith — son of Chileng and Devi
Sokhary — daughter of Chileng and Chan
Sokhom — sergeant with the Pailin sheriff’s department
Sokram — Chileng’s friend in Phnom Penh and at the Police Academy
Sokun Pin — Chileng’s friend who worked at the American Embassy
Sophal Prong — Chileng’s grandmother
Sovong — Chileng’s friend on the canal site
Thanh — Devi’s elder sister’s husband, an army captain
Thol — a foreman at the canal site
Thom — lieutenant friend from the 69th military supply brigade
Thy — Chileng’s alias under the Khmer Rouge
Ton — Chileng’s bicyclist mechanic boss in Prayap village
Tuy — Khmer Rouge soldier
Vibol — Devi’s third younger brother
Visal — Khmer Rouge work leader in Prayap village
Yann — lieutenant at the Kompong Chhnang Police Academy
Chronology
Around 7,000 years ago — First evidence of people living in northwest Cambodia
802–1431 — Hindu-Buddhist Angkor kingdom flourishes in SE Asia
1863 — France takes over Cambodia as a protectorate
1920s — Chileng’s grandfather immigrates from China to Cambodia
1941 — France installs Prince Norodom Sihanouk as king of Cambodia
October 1950 — Chileng is born in Phnom Penh
1953 — Cambodia wins independence from France and becomes the Kingdom of Cambodia under King Sihanouk
1955 — Sihanouk abdicates to pursue a political career; his father becomes king and he becomes prime minister
1958 — Chileng’s mother dies
1966 — Chileng meets Chan at school
1969 — With Vietnam War intensifying, the United States begins secret bombing of North Vietnamese troops in eastern Cambodia
March 1970 — Lon Nol wrests power from
Sihanouk in a coup d’etat and establishes the Khmer Republic; the Cambodian communists, or Khmer Rouge, gain ground
June 1970 — Chileng graduates from high school
August 1972 — Chileng drops out of school to become a policeman
Late 1973 — Chileng’s father dies
February 1974 — Chileng marries Devi
Early 1974 — Chileng joins the army
January 1975 — Chileng’s son, Sokhanarith, is born
April 1975 — Khmer Rouge overthrow Lon Nol and establish Democratic Kampuchea. In the next four years, they evacuate the cities, destroy the country’s infrastructure, turn the population into slave laborers, and cause the deaths of up to one-third of the people
April 18, 1975 — Chileng and family evacuate Phnom Penh, heading south, then east on Highway One
July 1975 — Chileng’s father-in-law is taken away by the Khmer Rouge
— Chileng and family arrive in Prayap village in southeast Cambodia near the Vietnamese border
Fall 1975 — Chileng joins bamboo-cutting crew
Fall 1976 — Chileng’s grandmother dies
Early 1977 — Chileng leaves Prayap to work at canal and levee worksite
April 1977 — Wife and baby killed, Chileng escapes to Vietnam
May 1977 — Chileng is transferred to Bon Teng Refugee Camp in Saigon
July 1978 — Chileng is transferred to Long Anh Refugee Camp for military training
December 1978 — Chileng is one of thousands of Cambodian soldiers attached to Vietnamese troops who invade Cambodia
January 7, 1979 — Vietnamese troops take over Phnom Penh
February 1979 — Chileng is demobilized
— Vietnamese establish the People’s Republic of Kampuchea