Sinn Sisamouth: History Continues

"Arriving at Center 15, I saw a camp fenced with bamboo trees. The camp is about one kilometer long by about 150 meters wide. They pushed me inside the bamboo fence and told me to go to a brick roof house built on stilts.  Below the house there were young security guards stationed there. That was the Khmer Rouge’s Angkar jail.  They told me to go upstairs.  As soon as I opened the door and stepped in, I saw plenty of men and women prisoners, at least 60 of them, they were manacled and shackled in rows to long steel rods.  This made me so scared.  When they put me in jail and shackled me to other prisoners, I was very surprised to see Bong (Old Brother) Sinn Sisamouth, Kong Sam Oeun (a famous film star), and a number of other artists who were also jailed there."

Chamnab tells us that one time, when he was shackled nearby, "Samouth, looking very sad, told me that he was sent from Prek Eng, Kien Svay district, Kandal province, where he had been jailed for three days.  He did not commit any fault but he was accused by the Khmer Rouge of being an imperialist.  It was difficult for Sinn Sisamouth to hide his identity and his face because he was a very famous singer dubbed the emperor of the country since long ago.  Even if the Khmer Rouge did not accuse him of being a singer serving a regime which was a sworn enemy to that of the Khmer Rouge, he was also a soldier serving the former regime."

Keo Chamab goes on to tell us some details about life in the prison; about the daily rations - "a scoop of rice husk powder mixed with chopped up banana trees" - and about how "the prisoners did not care about their life anymore, they did not know when they will die, whether it will be tomorrow or another day."

"Bong Samouth told me that we no longer have any hope.  He usually did not talk much, he used to stare the jail ceiling while others whisper to one another to reminisce about the good food they had before 1975, and some even laughed of their past stories from the Lon Nol regime.  As for Bong Samouth, he did not say much."

Keo Chamab continues by telling us about the horrible interrogation methods used in the prison.  "During the questioning session, all prisoners are manacled on both feet and shackled to the chair, they were beaten and some even had their nails pulled out.  As for Bong Samouth, he also bore torture marks on his back."  Keo Chamab described another incident when Sisamouth was hit in the head by a young guard with a bamboo container normally used to pee into.  "The guard then lectured him and told him that he belonged to a group of people without revolutionary conscience, to a group of imperialists without revolutionary conscience.  I saw tears rolling down his cheeks but he did not cry out loud as others would because to do so, he would be hit even harder, and he had no choice but to shed his tears in silence."

"They would tell the prisoners that the Angkar had congratulated them (the guards) for doing a good job in re-educating the prisoners, and that those prisoners who are being called to go out, they always ended up returning back to their village where they came from.  At the beginning, we believed them, but later on we noticed that the Chhlobs brought us back the clothes of those whom they took away, sometimes the clothes would still be stained with fresh blood."

"In the jail, we were forced to perform hard labor for 5 months, then in November, I did not remember the exact day, around 5:30 PM, it was already late when 2 to 3 Chhlobs came in with a list to call the prisoners to be taken away [to kill] as usual.  On that day, Bong Samouth’s name was called among the names of four or five other prisoners.  He did not change his name and he was still known as Sinn Sisamouth.  When his name was called, I was very distressed.  I saw that his face was very sad and was ashened. Before he was escorted out, he hugged me but he did not leave any message for his family, he simply said: “I am leaving before you Phoun (younger brother), may you remain behind in peace.”  I did not want to say much, I only replied to him: “Yes, Bong.”  His face was the face of a romantic person, he did not express anger nor unhappiness."