In 1975, when the Khmer Rouge army took over Phnom Penh, Bang was 24. The Khmer Rouge soldiers told people to leave for different reasons, such as the U.S. will bomb Phnom Penh and they need everyone to evacuate in order to search for enemies in the city. But no one believed them. Therefore, the soldiers brought guns to every family and forced everyone to leave or be shot. There was no destination; the soldiers just made everyone walk out of the capital in a line followed by soldiers with guns pointing at them. Some people found chances to leave in small roads, but if they were found, mostly they would be dead, so it was very dangerous. Bang did not try to escape, but followed the instructions of the soldiers.

Bang’s family did not bring many things because they were told that they would come back to Phnom Penh shortly. After a whole day when they almost arrived at the airport, Bang, his family and other people were told to turn back to Phnom Penh, but they were not going back to Phnom Penh, just to the countryside right next to the city. They ended up arriving at a bridge called the Mekong Bridge (Metal Bridge area), which took one whole day, as well. There were many people waiting on the bridge to cross so later it was decided that they were not going to cross the bridge, but head off to the southeast side towards "Thai Kom You." The soldiers are not holding guns anymore. People were not allowed to stop if it was not resting or eating time. Some soldiers would let you rest for a while, but those that wouldn’t let people rest, would fire at the sky to threaten them. If those people still did not move, the gun would be pointed at them.

At that time, the soldiers were not right behind the people anymore, but driving motorcycles along with the walking people. Along roadsides, Bang could see dead bodies that had been killed by the Khmer Rouge soldiers.

When "Thai Kom Yuo" was very close, it was already night, so everyone sat down cooking whatever food they brought with the water in the pond, regardless if the water was clean or dirty; there was no other choice. The next morning, they found out there was a dead body in the pond, so some people upset at the stomach and some people were so scared that they ran away from the pond. Everyone continued walking to wherever they were directed. They walked way past "Thai Kom Yuo" when suddenly Bang’s family and everyone were told to stop. There were many people who wanted to leave Vietnam or just go somewhere else. To do that, some people had bribed the soldiers, so those soldiers would tell their commander which families gave gold, and they were good to leave. Bang’s family didn’t leave, but actually stayed at that place, wherever it was, and started building a house. Continued >>

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