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Cambodia: People: Hem Pom
Hem Pom is 64 years old, and is a retired French teacher in Samrong Tong. Here he tells his story, in his own words.French Colonial Period I was born in Phnom Penh. My family was not rich and I was one of nine children. We had only our house and a little bit of land, so my parents could not leave a lot of money for us. I was too young to remember, about six years old, during the French time. I remember a plane dropping a bomb on the pagoda in Phnom Penh. My parents told me that it was a German plane. I remember things about life under the French regime very vaguely. My father worked as a guard for the government. When I was six years old my mother came to visit us. She arrived by boat and at the port when she arrived one of the planes dropped a bomb. It fell very close to her but she was not hurt. Find out more about this time Independence Era I got married in Samrong Tong district. That was where I started to work as a French teacher. When I was 24 years old I was getting a good salary as a teacher. I was earning much more than I was getting recently before I retired. I had a lot of money and I could support my family. Find out more about this time Civil War Time The Lon Nol regime was the most difficult for me. It was very difficult to provide for the family. The government was not forcing people to work in the fields but people had to do it in order to survive because of the bad economy at that time. During that time I was supporting five children and I worked as a train conductor, I transported potatoes and other vegetables and cow dung. I earned only a small amount of money for that work. Once I had to drive a long way on my truck with cow dung and my truck was shot at by the Khmer Rouge. So, it was a dangerous work that I had to do in order to survive. At that time the Khmer Rouge was moving from district to district occupying the provinces, so I moved back to Phonm Penh and started teaching there in 1972. There was a fight between Lon Nol soldiers and Pol Pot in the Samrong Tong area in 1973. A lot of Khmer Rouge soldiers were killed in that fight. That was why the Khmer Rouge hated people in Samrong Tong area, although it was not the people but the soldiers of Lon Nol who did that. In 1973 the two biggest houses in the village, including mine, were bombed by the Lon Nol planes. That was how I lost my house. There was a lot of rice in the house, approximately 2100 kgs of rice. It was all burnt and I lost other things too. During that time, in 1973, there were a lot of people fleeing from this area. They tried to settle as far as they could from Samrong Tong district. Find out more about this time Khmer Rouge Time When the Khmer Rouge came to Phonm Penh, I had to flee to Samrong Tong again. Angkar ("the organisation" - the Khmer Rouge) was dividing people into different groups based on their occupation. One of the Khmer Rouge chiefs in the district was one of my former students of French language and literature. He put me into a "people group" that was not killed, even though he knew how professional I was (normally professionals were executed). This chief did not want me to die. But later this former student changed his mind and wanted me to die so he sent me to work in the forest. I had to plant and grow vegetables and fruits there, and bring them to the village where my wife and children were staying. Two of my children died of sickness during the Pol Pot time. I remember the separation that existed in families at that time. If parents had a small child, they had very little time to see and spend time with him/her. They had to go out and work in the fields. Old people were looking after their small children. I remember that after the hardworking day in the field I hardly talked to my wife during the night because I was afraid of people spying on us. Once early in the morning I saw footprints near my house, so I was afraid. I saw many families being sent away and I knew they were killed later. I kept quiet. Find out more about this time Vietnamese Arrival In my community there were eight teachers. The Khmer Rouge decided to kill all the teachers before the Vietnamese troops came to help. One of the teachers heard the discussion of the Khmer Rouge soldiers about that and he returned to the village to tell all the teachers. The Khmer Rouge soldiers were afraid that the teachers would join the Vietnamese. These eight teachers agreed to fight back if the Khmer Rouge soldiers come to their houses during the night. Fortunately, the Vietnamese soldiers came in the morning and the teachers were fine. Find out more about this time Democracy In this regime, the Hun Sen regime, the salary for the government officials is little, so it is still hard for me to survive. Find out more about this time
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