© Maverick House, 2010
This is the rare testament of one of the few survivors of the Pol Pot regime, under which the Khmer Rouge killed 1.7 million people. Sathavy Kim recounts the treacherous days in 1975 following the invasion of Phnom Pen by the Khmer Rouge. She and her extended family fled together, working the black market until they had not a single possession to trade for food. They were rounded up with the other non-peasants, identifiable by their lighter skin and soft hands as upper-class, and forced to live with a family of workers until further word. The villagers took them in reluctantly, and there was much resentment. They had to work the rice fields where they suffered the cuts and backache of harvesting rice. Soon after that the internments began and the camp system was ready to receive its first victims. Deported at age 21, Savathy Kim spent four years of her life as prisoner of a “Korngchalat”, a forced labour camp.
Actes Sud 2008
Translated into: English
Actes Sud
Le Méjan - Place Nina Berberova
B.P 38
13633 Arles cedex
France
Website: www.actes-sud.fr