Sinn Sisamouth: History Continues

Creating wonderful music all the while, he had risen to the rank of Captain in the military by the time the Khmer Rouge took over the country.

In the days just before the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh, and the the terrible years to follow, details of Sinn Sisamouth's life are hard to verify.  Below I will try to construct a likely portrait of Samouth's last months and days, but the reader should be aware that contradictory accounts do exist.  By now, stories of his demise have become almost mythic in nature, a not uncommon phenomenon when legends die young.  


His Last Days
(This account places Sinn Sisamouth outside of Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge invaded the capital.  In other accounts, his journey begins in Phnom Penh.)  One evening, shortly after April 17th, 1975, Sinn Sisamouth decided to ask his friend Has Salorn to go back to Phnom Penh with him and work for the newly formed Khmer Rouge government, then known as Democratic Kampuchea.  Has Salorn disagreed with the plan, and may or may not have gone with Sisamouth.  Samouth decided he would travel back to Phnom Penh anyway.  Samouth left for Phnom Penh with his second wife, a dancer in the royal ballet, who was pregnant at the time.  According to Searng Vanthy, Sisamouth and his wife met his ex-wife and children at Wat Champa along National Route No. 1 with Has Salorn, Bich Soloen and Vicharadany, the movie star.

Other people claim that Samouth died in Siem Reap, Kompong Cham, or Preah Vihear provinces. Some people even believe that he was killed in Tuol Sleng prison, though this is unlikely.  Although his family and friends are uncertain as to what really happened to Sisamouth, they are certain of one thing - that he has passed away from this Earth.

Perhaps the most compelling account of Sisamouth's last days comes from Keo Chamnab, a government official at the state statistics office of the planning department, who tells us that he was jailed with Sinn Sisamouth.  He has provided numerous details on Sinn Sisamouth's life and death at the hands of the Pol Pot regime.

Before 1975, Keo Chamnab lived in Phnom Penh and he devoted his leisure time to composing songs, over 2000 of which were broadcast on radio or television.  He had met Sisamouth before 1975, because he wrote the song “12 Kakkada”(July 12th), which the singer performed.