Sereycharya

On the way to Sereycharya's house.

Phala & Sereycharya.

Sereycharya and her mother Phala are the first family that I interviewed for my internship. Because Sereycharya's father died of lung cancer and her mother suffers from heart attacks, her older brother financially supports the family. Phala grew up in Phnom Penh and her parents worked in the public government before the Khmer Rouge came into power. Their occupation led to their imprisonment by the regime. Not only were her parents taken but so were Phala and her three bothers and seven sisters. She was six years old when she was taken to live with other children whose parents were suspected to be enemies of the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, is famously quoted as saying "if you want to remove grass you must also take out the roots", meaning that everyone in the family of a prisoner must be executed so as to prevent the families from seeking revenge in the future. Therefore, it is not surprising that when Phala was released from the house at ten years of age, every single member of her family had been executed by the Khmer Rouge. Miraculously, she survived.

She told me that the separation from her family made her feel hopeless and that she was only able to live day by day. When I asked her how she felt about the current Cambodian government, she declined to answer due to her instilled fear of the government.

It's unbelievable to me that so little of the western world is knowledgeable about the tragedies that occurred in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.