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By Sorya Sim
Documentation Center of Cambodia
According to the prison execution logs, photographs, biographies, and
confessions, over one hundreds Vietnamese soldiers were killed at Tuol Sleng,
the former Khmer Rouge secret prison then known as "S-21". One of the very few
who survived detention at Tuol Sleng, Van Nath said that he saw Vietnamese
prisoners. A former high-ranking Vietnamese soldier has stated that only "a
couple of " Vietnamese soldiers were ever arrested by the Khmer Rouge. He added
that the uniforms were from the 1950s. Were these prisoners Vietnamese, and if
so, were they soldiers? The truth can be discovered. Through the use of Tuol
Sleng's internal records, staff of the Documentation Center of Cambodia have
already met with the families of 20 of the Cambodians who perished at Tuol
Sleng, with 19 former prison officials who disappeared there, as well as with 19
former prison officials who have survived and gave interviews. The Documentation
Center hopes to be able to find the same for these allegedly Vietnamese soldiers
who were also executed at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. As the Vietnamese
government is currently seeking the remains of their soldiers who were killed in
action in Cambodia, researchers of the Documentation Center would like to share
its findings with regard to the fate of the perhaps 126 Vietnamese soldiers
murdered at Tuol Sleng prison between 1975-1979.
Tran Ngoc Tai was one of
the 126 alleged soldiers of the total of at least 488 Vietnamese killed at Tuol
Sleng prison. According to his Tuol Sleng confession, Tai was arrested on
January 24, 1978, on Vai island, off the Cambodian coast. He was sent to Tuol
Sleng prison on January 31, 1978 and was executed on May 27, 1978. Tai was born
in Thi Tran village, Duong Dong sub-district, Phu Quoc district, Kien Giang
province, Vietnam. He was accused of being a Vietnamese soldier holding a rank
of a sergeant in platoon 2, company 1, Army of Phu Quoc district. Mr. Tai joined
the army on February 3, 1976 and was sent to a political and military school for
one month in Phu Quoc district. In one of his political classes, Tai
was
instructed by Tran Vuc Sy, deputy chief of Phu Quoc district, that the
strategic objective of the Vietnamese Communist Party had been to form
"Indo-China Federation," an original goal of Indo-China Communist Party created
by Ho Chi Minh in 1930. Sy explained that this Indo-China Federation was to be
formed after a complete liberation of Indochina from the imperialists. In 1975,
according to the confession, Cambodia rejected the idea but Viet Nam remained
intent upon making it a reality. Viet Nam aimed to exercise complete control
over Indo-China and its resources by effectively turning it into one country,
with Viet Nam as unchallenged leader, thereby eliminating Cambodian
independence.
Tai's unit was assigned to guard Phu Quoc district. On January 23, 1978, the
chief of his company, Em Cham Quat, ordered him to conduct espionage on Vai
Island, where he was subsequently captured. While Tran Ngoc Tai's
account
must be seen as the product of a forced confession, experience shows
that it, and those of the other purported Vietnamese soldiers who perished at
Tuol Sleng, can be verified by investigation. A remaining question is whether or
not justice will be served and the murderers of these prisoners of war properly
charged with war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.
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