Meas Sareum

 

 

 

A woman who worked as a cook at the military general staff hospital in Phnom Penh (ex-Preah Ket Mealea hospital, near Voat Phnum) in 1975-1978 said that if the cooking did not please those in charge, they would mouth off at the cooks.  If the rice was raw, cooks were tied up and taken into the forest to be beaten in order to "refashion" them.  There were armed guards there to prevent cooks from running away.  There were also executions, and the source was almost a victim.  She was blindfolded when taken to the site, but saw blood and graves and knew this was a place where executions were carried out.  Combatants there put a gun to her neck and chewed her out for not being able to do something simple like cook the rice properly, and she cried and was not killed.   She was brought back to the hospital after three days, following appeals on her behalf by her team chief.[1]

 


 

[1] Meas Sareum, interviewed aged 49 in Treang district, Takaev province in May 2004.