Sao Samarth is a widow who witnessed and experienced many social changes in her life. She described her experiences of escaping bombardment and fighting between the Lon Nol’s and Khmer Rouge’s soldiers with American military assistance in 1970s at her hometown in Kandal province’s Lovea Em district.
Because of life threatening from fighting and bombardment, Sao Samarth escaped and made a living in Phnom Penh with her family between 1971 and 1975 during which she witnessed increasing social and economic tension in Phnom Penh due to Khmer Rouge’s military strength at countryside. She also describes the situation of Phnom Penh on the day of evacuation as she was one among million people who tried to move out of the city. Upon returning back to her hometown during the Khmer Rouge regime, she and her family were mistreated and discriminated.
In 1977, she and her family were shipped from Prey Veng to Phnom Penh and sent to live in a remote village of Pursat province where she endured hardship and labor work. She explained how she was rescued from death when she was sent to join a mobile unit. Under the Khmer Rouge’s control, she was arranged to get married with a man whom she had never seen or heard of before. She also narrates her story after liberation during which she tried to look for her arranged-marriage husband and her struggles to bring up her only daughter after her husband’s death due to K5.
This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018