Sang Security Centre2046
Location and Establishment
476. Sang security centre was a district level security centre located in Trapeang Sva Village, Trea Commune, Kandal Steung District, Kandal Province.2047 Applying the CPK's system of identifying administrative boundaries, it was located in district 154 (code-number for Kandal Steung), Sector 25, Southwest Zone. It appears to have commenced operation as a security centre sometime during 1976 or 197 72048 and was operational until the end of the CPK regime.2049 Originally a teacher training centre, Sang was ringed by barbed wire and comprised of several concrete structures, including a number of detention buildings, a blacksmith's shack, a kitchen, and a separate house for the prison chairman.2050 There were also a number of special detention cells for CPK cadres who had committed serious offences.2051
Functioning
Structure and Personnel
477. As a district level security centre, Sang was controlled by the district 154 Committee.2052 The District Committee would regularly meet with the prison chairman at the Committee's headquarters in Siem Reap Kantuot and one of its successive secretaries, Yann (deceased), would personally visit Sang every two to three months. 2053 South West Zone Secretary, Ta Mok (deceased), may have also visited Sang on a number of occasions.2054
478. Up to 20 cadres worked at Sang at any one time.2055 There were several different chairmen in charge of Sang during its operation.2056 After the first chairman, Mong, was arrested in 1977 or 1978, it appears that other cadres took control of Sang.2057 The last chairman, Nev, was in charge of Sang for only a few months before the fall of the CPK regime in January 1979.2058 Two former Sang cadres recall that conditions improved after Nev took over. One goes as far as to say that under Nev, no new prisoners arrived, prisoners were not shackled,
and no one was killed.2059
Arrest and Detention
479. Seven witnesses and two civil parties who were detained at Sang were interviewed.2060 Men, women, and children were all imprisoned there.2061 At any one time there would be approximately 100 to 300 people in detention2062 and prisoners would arrive and leave on a regular basis.2063 However, it appears that under Mong, no-one was released to go back home.2064 Those arrested appear to have come mainly from Kandal Steung district.2065 Often whole families were brought in together.2066 They were a mixture of base people, including CPK cadres, and new people, including former Khmer Republic soldiers.2067 A former guard who participated in interrogations recalls that the majority of prisoners were Khmer Republic soldiers. He attests that if someone was accused of being a Lon Nol soldier, CPK cadre would arrest him and bring in the entire family, including children.2068 People were arrested for being "enemies" which meant anything from actual or perceived sympathies towards the Khmer Republic regime, the Khmer Sar, feudalism, capitalism, the CIA or the KGB, not following orders, breaking ploughs or stealing food.2069 Sometimes people were arrested because others who had been interrogated at Sang Security Cnetre had implicated
them.2070
480. Group leaders, village chiefs, and Subdistrict chairmen all brought prisoners to Sang.2071 Often the prisoners were not told the truth about where they were being taken.2072 People arrived by truck, bicycle, ox-cart or on foot. After arriving, they were ordered at gunpoint to get on the ground where their hands were tied. They were then escorted to their cells.2073 It appears that prisoners were put into different categories, as either light or serious prisoners, which determined the conditions of their detention and where they could work.2074 One former guard (and later light prisoner) states that those in the most serious category had their legs shackled and were ultimately executed, whereas light prisoners could work outside.2075 Those who had committed more serious offences slept in rows of twenty with one leg locked to a long rod or log.2076 These prisoners urinated, defecated and slept in the same place.2077 However, not everyone was shackled, in particular women.2078 Men and women were kept separately in different buildings.2079 They slept naked as the prison chief was afraid they could use their clothing to hang themselves.2080 One former prisoner recalls a guard coming into his cell and beating his knees with a hammer for no apparent reason.2081 The food was insufficient and many people died from starvation.2082 In addition, prisoners also died from disease and from the injuries they sustained from beatings.2083
481. Prisoners, including children, were forced to work.2084 Guards and former prisoners recall that when serious offence prisoners went outside to work they were chained in pairs by their feet.2085 A former prisoner recalls farming whilst shackled and having to wrap the chain around his waist.2086 Light prisoners would work without being restrained.2087 Labour included planting vegetables, rice farming, carrying water, breaking up tree stumps and minding cattle.2088 A former guard recalls seeing prisoners being beaten with whips and clubs as they were escorted to work.2089 Former prisoners attest to seeing guards beating prisoners to death for minor infractions.2090 Sick prisoners who could still work were treated with medicine, whereas those who could not were neglected and sometimes died.2091
482. Two former cadres recall that sometime in 1978 the Deputy Chairman of Sang, Meng, was imprisoned himself for being "immoral" with a female prisoner.2092 Two former detainees heard from others that a female prisoner had been raped by her interrogators, who were themselves subsequently detained.2093 A civil party's nephew states that he eyewitnessed the rape of her sister at Sang.2094
0 comments:
Post a Comment