TC SCRIPT
TC AT 00.00.00. FROM FIRST FRAME AFTER COLOUR BARS
00.02.03 TITLE: ONE DAY AT PO CHREY – ANATOMY OF A MASSACRE
00.11.12 CAPTION
A United Nations backed court is now prosecuting the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge for the deaths of 2 million Cambodians in the 1970s.
One of the first alleged massacres occurred days after the Khmer Rouge seized power in April 1975
According to the court, up to 3,000 defeated soldiers were killed at Po Chrey in north west Cambodia.
00.29.22 CAPTION
Award winning investigative journalist Thet Sambath was orphaned in the Killing fields.
He is known all over the world for his unique obtaining Khmer Rouge confessions on camera.
He has investigative the Po Chrey massacre for many years. He tracked down several perpetrators and found the death toll was far higher than the court reckons.
THET SAMBATH STOPS VILLAGER IN PROVINCIAL CAPITAL PURSAT
00.48.20 Excuse me sir are you local to Pursat?
Yes
00.52.11 Where is the road to Po Chrey?
00.55.12 When you get to Yi Ang, turn north
To the left?
01.01.01 Yes
How many kilometres from here to Po Chrey?
01.01.06 I don’t know, it’s far
SAMBATH DRIVES. THEN GETS OUT OF CAR BY MARKET STALL AND TALKS TO THE PEOPLE THERE
01.01.17 Why do you want to go there?
01.01.20 Let me know speak for a minute
01.01.26 Did you see them taken along this road?
01.01.30 yes in Pol Pot’s regime
01.01.34 You go past Pring Puos. Then you will get to Tuol Po Chrey
01.01.36 Were there a lot of trucks passing by?
01.01.38 Was it when they were taken to be killed?
That’s right there were loads of them.
01.01.41 What were they taken for?
They said for training, but they were killed
01.01.46 My father was sent to Po Chrey too
And he was also killed.
01.01.51 Was he your natural father?
Yes he was
01.01.54 How many of your relatives were killed?
Only my father
01.01.56 was he a soldier?
He was a soldier in the previous regime
01.02.00 They said soldiers ranked colonel would be sent to study
01.02.05 So everyone was trying to climb aboard the trucks
01.02.08 He told me he was going for study
01.02.12 I told him “you should go father”
01.02.14 I thought he would come back the next day. But he never did.
01.02.17 And in a few days the bodies were piling up at Po Chrey
01.02.20 What is your name?
Yong Sok Nheb
01.02.27 Thanks very much
01.02.26 Let’s go
SAMBATH WINDS HIS WINDOW DOWN TO ASK DIRECTIONS
01.02.56 Brother, where is Po Chean’s house?
Further to the north
PO CHEAN, A MAN WITH NO NOSE,SURROUNDED BY HIS FAMILY TELLS SAMBATH WHAT HE SAW IN APRIL 1975
01.03.08 I followed my buffalo there
01.03.13 They had run away so I followed them
01.03.17 I didn’t know people had been killed there
01.03.20 When I got there I saw bodies everywhere
01.03.24 They were tied together
01.03.28 What condition were they in?
Were they decomposed and swollen?
01.03.31 They weren’t yet decomposed or swollen because I got there the morning after
01.03.36 But I could hear the sounD of decomposing bodies
01.03.41 They weren’t swollen yet
01.03.43 What did they sound like?
01.03.45 The sound of air moving in decomposing bodies
01.03.47 Like our stomachs sound sometimes when we are hungry
01.03.49 Maybe they were still breathing?
01.03.52 No they were all dead
01.03.54 Their bodies had turned stiff too
01.03.57 After we die the air inside our bodies moves and makes a noise.
01.04.06 If you had seen it you would have been frightened
01.04.09 My hair stood on end so i ran home
01.04.19 May I borrow some rope?
01.04.24 Give it to Grandpa so he can show us
01.04.30 What did you see? Tie me up the same way
01.04.38 They tied it twice, then you’d be connected in the same way
01.04.50 They tied tightly with strong knots like this
01.05.05 And the remaining rope was pulled through to tie the other men
01.05.09 The hands were bound closely together
01.05.13 How many of them were there?
01.05.17 Maybe 20 bodies tied to each rope
01.05.31 So you pull the rope through like this from one hand to another
SAMBATH GOES TO PO CHREY. STOPS AT THE POND WITH TWO WOMEN FARMERS WHO SHOW HIM THE WAY. ONE WOMAN TAKES A BATH IN THE POND
01.06.58 I bathe when I farm and it’s too hot
01.07.02 But I never drink the water
01.07.04 I know this is where the bodies were buried, so I dare not drink it
FOUR KHMER ROUGE SOLDIERS TELL OF THE MASSACRE THEY PARTICIPATED IN AT PO CHREY
01.07.48 At the meeting they told to be up at 4 to attack Po Chrey
01.08.03 We woke at 4. Everyone was there. We got in the trucks.
01.08.08 We travelled from Pursat got to Po Chrey at dawn. Just light enough to see.
01.08.14 Our commander Klem announced the Plan on a loudspeaker
01.08.25 Soldiers from the zone and our units 18 & 19 – almost a thousand – made a cordon
01.08.37 our zone was called the Preventive Unit
01.08.43 They told us if any targets escaped from the Smashing Unit
01.08.50 our unit must take necessary measures or the Plan would fail
01.08.59 About 7am we heard trucks approaching
01.09.06 When the trucks got close, they announced Special Unit stand by to carry out the Plan
01.09.19 It was the third day after liberation when I drove them to Po Chrey
01.09.24 I already knew about the Plan – they were to be killed
01.09.31 They were important officials in the Lon Nol Regime
01.09.34 They thought they were just going away from their wives for a few nights.
01.09.41 After meeting the Prince they’d be back to their old jobs. They had no worries at all.
01.09.48 They were teasing each other. “What’s your wife packed for you?”
01.09.58 They wore civilian clothes, the provincial governor wore white with a straw hat
01.10.05 They tried to look ordinary because Khmer Rouge wore black clothes
01.10.13 So they tried to look like farmers
01.10.22 I made small talk with them in my truck
01.10.24 I created a relaxed atmosphere so they suspected nothing
01.10.36 When they climbed down from the truck, there was an announcement...
01.10.44 “Comrades! Do not be afraid!”
01.10.47 You will meet Angkar [the Organisation], but because of your background, Angkar does not trust you yet
01.10.50 As you are meeting the Prince, we must tie your arms
01.10.53 After all men on the truck were tied up, they were led away to the killing field
01.11.02 You see the killing was like this...
01.11.06 They shot one here, then another. One by one they fell down
01.11.15 The brains were scattered
01.11.19 The white brains mixed with red blood – horrendous
01.11.25 They didn’t shoot them in the open in case they were seen by the victims in the next truck
01.11.30 So those coming in next couldn’t see the killing until they reached the raised bak of the pond
01.11.34 They could only see the dead bodies when they came to the side of the pond
01.11.41 When they saw the dead, they fell to their knees crying out
01.11.48 Some of them who were strong enough, shouted out curses
01.11.53 “You godless devils! You’re animals!”
01.11.57 As soon as they saw the bodies they cursed
01.12.00 But others were struck dumb and couldn’t even walk
01.12 03 They were beaten and kicked all the way to the killing field.
01.12.11 I saw someone coming out.
01.12 15 I said to Thoeun “That man looks like my uncle”
01.12 22 Thoeun said “where is he?”
01.12.24 I said “over there, the tall man, that’s my uncle Nuth”
01.12.28 Then I walked over to look from medium distance
01.12.33 And then I saw my cousin Srey Nang – his daughter
01.12 37 Then I realised he really was my Uncle
01.12.41 I retreated in a hurry to avoid his glance
01.12.44 I was scared he might shout out “Nephew, come and help me!”
01.12.47 Then I would have been implicated and died alongside him
01.12.51 Instead I escaped and hid from his sight
01.12.57 Then they tied him up with his daughter and killed them both
SAMBATH TAKES ONE SOLDIER, IN THOEUN, BACK TO THE SCENE OF THE KILLING
01.13.16 When I come here I feel as though the killing is happening right now
01.13.42 At first they wanted to hide them all in the big pond. But it wasn’t big enough.
01.13.46 When the pond was full up, they laid the bodies in the field
01.13.50 At first I took my position up here. And they shot in this direction.
01.13.56 Scalps were flying, shredded by bullets. It was hard to watch.
01.14.04 The stench of blood was too strong so I moved upwind.
01.14.13 Did you walk along here?
01.14.18 It must have been late afternoon when I walked back here as my unit was re-deployed.
01.14.26 The bodies were everywhere. All around the pond was covered in corpses.
01.14.33 I could not walk along this way because the bodies were everywhere.
01.14.40 So I walked by the fence to the military lines where the trucks were stationed
01.14 49 So you wanted to walk this way, but you couldn’t because of the bodies?
01.14.52 This place was covered in bodies so I walked over that way to re-join my unit
01.15.01 I asked members of the Smashing Unit, people like Try ...
01.15.04 “How many soldiers were killed here?”
01.15.07 He told me “Nearly 10,000”
ANOTHER KHMER ROUGE SOLDIER, PRORM PREIN, REMEMBERS THE NUMBERS
01.15.13 How many bodies did you see, do you reckon?
01.15.28 I can’t say exactly but I spoke to Bol, the recruitment office of the Smashing Unit
01.15.40 He said ‘between 9,000 and 10,000’
01.15.54 Please speak a little louder. Whom did you ask what after the shooting?
01.16.02 I asked him back at the canteen after we’d transferred back to the provincial capital
01.16.12 I said “Bol, I don’t know how many died because I was on the outside”
01.16.23 He said it couldn’t be more than 1,000 less than 10,000
THE KHMER ROUGE DRIVER REMEMBERS THE DEAD
01.16.35 All the soldiers wanted to see the Prince because they wanted to get promotion
01.16.51 The rank and file had bought officers’ stripes. That’s why there were so many dead
01.17.00 Some weren’t even real soldiers. They’d just bought them from market stalls.
01.17.08 Along the Pursat River on the road leading to the market
01.17.17 at that time insignia were still on sale
01.17.21 Until the third day when money was abolished and the market finished
SAMBATH STOPS A FARMER AT THE SCENE WHO WAS THERE AS A BOY
01.17.33 When I was small I came here. The killing had already happened
01.17.41 The bodies were melting like molten tarmac
01.17.47 The place was like a rubber plantation. The stomachs were bloated and bubbling.
01.17.54 What did they tell you at first? Why did they tell you to come here?
01.17.57 They told me to remove all the houses belonging to the [defeated] soldiers
01.18.09 We dismantled the houses while the Khmer Rouge buried the bodies with bulldozers
01.18.19 Tell me what you saw when you first came here?
01.18.27 I saw the corpses and the Khmer Rouges. They were cutting the heads off some of the bodies.
01.18.36 What did they do with the severed heads and where were you? Tell me
01.18.41 They put one head over there and the other over the gate entrance there.
01.18.53 Who did the heads belong to?
01.18.58 They were Mr Pel and Mr Run. One two men had their heads cut off.
01.19.04 Whose head was where?
01.19.06 Mr Run was mounted to the north; Mr Pel, to the south.
01.19.10 They served as a warning not enter this place
01.19.14 How were they mounted?
01.19.16 They were mounted on sharpened poles through the throats
01.19.27 So Mr Run’s head, how far were you away from it?
01.19.33 I touched him. I played with the pole with heads on top.
01.19.38 So how were you playing with the heads? Show me?
01.19.43 I was shaking their heads for fun. I saw his clothes and his torso.
01.19.52 Mr Pel’s body was laid here and his head was stuck over there
01.20.02 How old were you at the time?
01.20.07 I was a small boy, about as young as those girls over there.
01.20.17 So you were maybe 11 or 12?
01.20.20 I think I was 11, certainly no older than 12.
01.20.31 How many female bodies were there?
01.20.36 Just three. I saw them here. They were buried over by the Char tree.
01.20.46 They were naked. Maybe there raped under the shade.
SAMBATH PUTS THE ACCOUNTS TO NUON CHEA, KHMER ROUGE NUMBER TWO, THIS INTERVIEW IS FROM 21 JULY 2007
01.20.58 Please confirm the policy on Lon Nol soldiers. I asked you before, now I’m recording...
01.21.12 After liberation on 17 April 1975, what were the orders for them?
01.21.19 And were there orders for the top officials, if so who?
01.21.27 I ask because after liberation those soldiers were executed. What do you know of this?
01.21.39 As I recall defeated soldiers were to surrender their weapons and return home.
01.21.50 That’s what I remember of the directive. But I didn’t know what actually happened.
01.22.03 Uncle, what were the political orders fo the top 4 or 5 leaders (of previous regime)?
01.22.08 They were to be liquidated
01.22.14 They deserved the severest penalty. They’d betrayed the nation to foreigners.
01.22.28 Were you informed of the killing of thousands of soldiers a few days after April 17?
01.22.38 In Pursat, Battambang, Pailin, Banteay Meanchey. Did you know about that then?
01.22.47 At the time I didn’t know at all about these killings. I heard only after integration [1998].
01.22.59 During the regime I did not know.
01.23.10 And if I had known then, we would have taken preventative measures to stop that kind of thing
01.23.20 They’d done nothing wrong, there were normal soldiers, no different from ordinary people.
01.23 32 officers from colonels to lieutenants were told to show up and welcome the Prince
01.23.45 And some civilians wearing military uniforms came. Then they were taken away.
01.23.56 I didn’t know about that. I resume it was the work of the local commands.
01.24.04 But it did happen. So why?
01.24.12 I think such actions were motivated by revenge.
01.24.23 Previously cadres were often beaten up by secret agents. So it could be score-settling
01.24.37 I don’t deny it happened but I did not know at the time
SAMBATH PUTS SAME ALLEGATIONS TO NUON CHEA IN A PREVIOUS INTERVIEW, 15 NOVEMBER 2006
01.24.49 It is alleged that after the liberation, Lon Nol’s soldiers were taken for execution
01.25.03 I didn’t know where they took Lon Nol’s soldiers to because I had no military role
01.25.13 After they demobilized they were supposed to join collectives like everyone else.
01.25.20 There was no food to supply them in the cities and towns
01.25.29 It was hard to know what was happening because it was chaotic then
01.25.36 The war of espionage had already started then
01.25.43 It was so hard to know because there were allegations between different groups.
ENDS