Hong Proeung

Moving on, we continued our journey towards another villager’s house. On the way, we rode past huge trees that shaded our eyes from the searing sun. We got out of the van, covering our eyes to block the sun and we walked inside one of the villager’s houses, who greeted us warmly with a smile. Phorn Vanny then volunteered to interview the survivor and we sat with him beside a square table under a big mango tree. His name was Hong Proeung, and he is 64 years old. He is a farmer. During the Khmer Rouge regime, he was assigned to be a soldier in the mobile unit brigade. He was placed as a guard along Cambodia’s borders with Vietnam. He described how he witnessed war crimes and mass killings of people. He stressed how he was terrified that he was the last man standing in his assigned unit when other people who lived and ate with him were all killed in the war. He then concluded his interview by describing how he was forced to study the ways of the Khmer Rouge deep inside a bamboo forest. He wants to leave a message for future generations to study hard and improve our country so that another regime like this never happens again.