History & the Khmer Rouge: Where have you taken my husband?

By Sreang Lyhour

In 1978, after sharing a meal with Khmer Rouge officials, Rem saw with her own eyes soldiers get out of a vehicle and take her husband, Mam Hoeb, into custody. Powerless, she could only cry. According to the archives of the Cambodia Documentation Center, Mam Hoeb was later confirmed to have been detained at the S-21 security center.

Document number K00338, a one-page biography of a detainee from the S-21 security center, reveals that Rem's husband was named Mam Hoeb, also known as Hoeun, aged 41 in 1978 and of Khmer nationality. Before 1975, Hoeb was classified as an “elderly person” in Zone 3. During the Khmer Rouge regime, he served as deputy head of the Kampong Chhnang cooperative in Zone 3. He resided in the village of Kampong Chhnang, Prek Kpos commune, Mongkol Borey district, Battambang province. His parents, Chea Mam and Thok Cheu, were both farmers. Hoeb was married to Det Rem, with whom he had a son. On March 25, 1978, he was arrested in the northwestern zone and then detained in house 43, room 2, of the S-21 security center. His physical characteristics were recorded as follows: height 1.55 meters, torso length 0.82 meters.

Det Rem, née Duch Ren, was 69 years old in 2006. Her father's name was Duch, and she was born and lived in Bavel commune, Bavel district, Battambang province. In the 1960s, Rem married Mam Hoeb, also known as Hoeun. In 1972, Khmer Rouge soldiers forcibly relocated the local population, including Rem's family, to a wooded area in Damnak Sala. Rem gathered rice and traveled to Damnak Sala with her family in a cart.

There, the Khmer Rouge appointed her husband as group leader, responsible for supervising ten families who cultivated rice by hand and distributing the harvest among the households. In 1973, Damnak Sala was bombed and Ta Chang, who arrived too late in a trench, was killed instantly. In early 1975, Rem returned to her native village.

In April 1975, after the Khmer Rouge officially came to power, the district committee, led by Ta Uy, and the commune committee, led by Ta Khi, convened a meeting to give Rem and her husband instructions regarding their roles within the cooperative. Under the cooperative system, religious practices and monks were banned, and pagodas and temples were converted into hospitals. Rem's husband was appointed by the district committee as a member of the Kampong Chhnang cooperative committee, where he supervised the agricultural work of about 100 to 150 families, including rice cultivation, digging canals, and other manual tasks.

The daily work quota required each person to uproot five bundles or twenty handfuls of rice seedlings. The workday lasted from 7 a.m. to noon, followed by a meal break, then resumed from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., after which there was another meal break. All cooperative members, old and new, ate together in a large communal dining hall.

During this period, Rem was the cooperative's cook. She was responsible for preparing meals for the community and distributing rice rations to individuals before they left to work in the distant rice fields, located far from the communal dining hall. Rem frequently received orders from her husband and senior officials asking her to transfer cooperative families such as Srakei Doung, Ampil Pram Deurm, and Mo Kloeum to her cooperative. Rem found that the majority of the ten families she was accompanying were already suffering from disease and malnutrition. She described her husband as a gentle and compassionate man who was deeply moved by the plight of those suffering from hunger. Rem recalls that between 1975 and 1976, the famine worsened considerably. In 1976, her husband's parents died of illness and malnutrition.

In 1977, leaders of the cooperative in the southwestern zone took control of the cooperative and imposed strict rules on Rem. She was ordered to serve only porridge or, occasionally, rice, limiting each person to one ladleful. For each table of ten people, there was only one serving of fermented fish paste, sour soup, or spicy broth, with no possibility of seconds. It was strictly forbidden to take rice or porridge home. A cadre from the southwestern zone stated:

“Comrade, if you give them more, they will keep it.”

Rem recalls that she knew there were about 150 families, but she did not know the exact population, which made meal preparation and distribution systematically inadequate. Witnessing this situation, Rem secretly shared sweet potatoes with members of the community kitchen to help them ease their hunger. Despite these efforts, many people succumbed to starvation. When Rem's husband fell ill, officials in the southwestern zone allowed them to keep a basket of rice for their personal use. During this time, Rem's adopted child came to visit her. Rem recalls:

“When my child came home, I didn’t dare let him stay, for fear of being accused of disloyalty by the others.”

She also secretly gave her adopted child some rice to take back to the children’s unit.

In addition to working, her child received basic literacy classes, learning to read and write with charcoal under the guidance of a teacher. In 1978, following the arrest of the district committee, the commune committee, the cooperative leader, and cadres named Chouy, Chin, Iem, and Hour, Rem learned that the Khmer Rouge would soon arrest her husband.

 That day, Rem did not go to work and waited for her husband, who had gone into the forest with villagers to carry wood. At 5 p.m., her husband returned from work and, shortly afterwards, a teacher came to invite Rem and her husband to share a meal with other Khmer Rouge cadres. After her husband had taken a few bites, Khmer Rouge soldiers ordered him to get into a vehicle. Rem was prevented from accompanying him. Her husband said to her:

“Comrade, why are you crying? If you cry, you won't be able to carry out the socialist revolution,” and warned her, “If they take you away, leave the child here, don't send him to your aunt or anyone else.”

Rem returned home in tears, mourning her husband's forced departure. She asked her husband's trusted aide, named Duy, to check if her husband had been detained by the Khmer Rouge, but Duy replied that he had not seen him. Meanwhile, Rem's only brother, Mam Hun, had been sent by Rem's uncle to join a group of fishermen and was never seen again.

Three months later, during a meeting, a cadre from the southwestern zone accused Rem of being a widow and ordered that she be sent to the children's unit. Rem refused and remained silent. Inside, she wondered, “Where did you take my husband? You call me a widow, but you give me no answer.” She continued to wait for news of her husband for more than six months, but received none. The Khmer Rouge eventually informed her, “You don’t need to wait for him anymore; he’s dead.” Despite pressure from members of the communal kitchen to be transferred to the children's unit, Rem refused and continued to work in the cooperative kitchen until the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, where she remained for more than three years. In 1979, after Vietnamese troops entered Cambodia, Rem and her child traveled by ox cart to return to their village.

Unfortunately, her child was injured by a landmine during the journey. Rem recalls that her husband had never hurt anyone and had always helped the villagers collect wood and transport salt, fermented fish, and medicine to distribute upon their return from work in Pailin. It is worth noting that Rem's husband was the last person to be taken by the Khmer Rouge to their cooperative.

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Sources:

1 Document No. K00338. (1978). Biography of a prisoner named Mam Hoeb, also known as Hoeun. Cambodia Documentation Center. Document No. BBI0017. (2006).

Interview with Det Rem by Ri Vanna and Sok Vanna on July 12, 2006. Cambodia Documentation Center. Ta Chang was a villager living in Damnak Sala. According to an interview with Rem, it was revealed that Duy died in 1979, after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Rem's father held a position within the Khmer Rouge leadership.