Pig food and death: The nightmare of life under Pol Pot's mad regime.

Our names are Somalai and Somala Seng. We are sisters. We are also survivors of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and lived as refugees on the Thai border.

During Pol Pot time, life was difficult and dangerous. It was very hard to survive. 

She first heard the Khmer Rouge through a crackling loudspeaker on an old truck. The soldiers drove around the streets of Pailin, telling the locals they only needed to pack for a few days while they cleared the town.

It was 1975, Somalai Seng was 11. She didn’t understand this was the start of an episode that would shape her life, her sister’s life and the future of their country.

Somalai and Somala’s parents got them to pack what they could carry and, along with the rest of the villagers, they set off on a march once the sun went down. The Khmer Rouge only allowed them to walk at night, so they couldn’t see the bodies of hundreds of others who had already been killed.

"They said, 'Keep going, you cannot go back.' We thought, why does the Khmer Rouge make us walk in the night time, not the day time," Somalai says.

"We didn't know. After some people, they smelt the stink from the bodies and they see a lot of bodies in the water near the road.

"The parents did not tell the kids because the kids would be very scared. We said dad, 'What is this stink?' And he said it was dead fish. We never see. He made us walk in the middle of the road, not on the edge."

Somalai and her family walked every night for a week until they arrived at a mountain outside Pailin, where the Khmer Rouge had set up a huge labour camp. People were put to work, farming for the collective, but not for themselves.

"If they fed the people full, the people could fight back for freedom. If you were caught eating the vegetables, you were killed. If they know you eat the vegetable, they kill your whole family.

"We grew a lot of rice they took to China to trade and brought the guns back. They traded it for guns.

"We didn't understand killing or dying, we just wanted to eat. We stole a lot: cucumbers, fruit, mum did too. We ate anything, crickets or some lizards - if you find it, you eat it. We were too hungry. Even the grass for the cows, we ate it. We were getting skinny."

"They separated the kids from the parents," Somalai says. "My sister, they took her first - she cried a lot and did not want to go. Mum said, 'Don't cry and work hard, my daughter, and not say anything. Just close your mouth. If you say something they can hear you in the night time. The army listen and after they kill you.'

"The children belonged to the leader. They take the young children to kill old people because they were not scared, they just kill.

"They had charcoal, they would draw a picture of a family and we would have to cross it out. Then everyone clapped. I thought it was not good, I went home to mum and dad and said, 'why do they tell me to hate my parents and cross out the picture'.

"They took me to another group too, my mum and my father work in another village. They made a long hut made out of grass and all the children slept in a line. There were 200 or 300 children in one hut. Daytime we go to work.

"At night time we just cried because we could not run, run where? We were all alone. If you were sick you just died, we don't have doctor.

"The leaders of Khmer Rouge, they raised pigs but not for the people. They grew for only the leader to eat. The pig's food was better than my food. They gave them rice and some salt. So for me, sometimes I went and stole the food from the pig - but they can arrest you.

"There were a lot of missing people. It was so scary. Before they take people to kill, they dig a big pond. Two or three hundred people, they just sat them in lines and killed and put them in there. They knocked them with an axe and a machete.

"I still think about those hungry times. Sometimes we go back to thinking about that, it was very hard. Sometimes we want to forget but we cannot forget. When something happens like this you cannot forget in your brain."

Two months later, troops from neighbouring Vietnam started fighting against the Khmer Rouge. Somalai and her family were caught in the conflict, along with thousands of other civilians.

Her father feared that if they stayed as prisoners of the Khmer Rouge, they would die. They feared crossing to the Vietnamese side too, but it was the only chance they had. The family joined hands and ran across a battlefield - from the Khmer Rouge lines, across no man's land to the Vietnamese forces. It was a terrifying plan but they felt they had no choice.

"The Khmer Rouge said we could not go and said the Vietnam army would cut our heads off. But then we said the Khmer Rouge will kill us the same, we need to run. If we continued with the Khmer Rouge, we would die, if we run to the Vietnamese we could either die or survive. We had a half a chance.

A history of genocide

The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

The regime killed up to two million people, in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot declared the nation would start again from 'Year Zero'. Pol Pot's regime forced millions of Cambodians into labour camps in the countryside.

Hundreds of thousands of people were imprisoned, tortured and killed, many others died of starvation.

The Khmer Rouge was eventually overthrown by Vietnamese forces in 1979.

"We were running. There were too many bullets and smoke. My dad held my hand and I held hands with Mala, and my mum held my sister's hand. My dad said if you don't hold hands carefully, maybe we cannot find you. So we just ran, ran."

The whole family survived and made their way to the town of Battambang, where they had relatives and hopes of help. They were determined to start earning a living again, after so long in the Khmer Rouge camp. But the fighting was not far away.

"She made some small, small cake and give to me Mala and Male and my mum, we carry to sell to exchange for rice. At that time, we didn't have money yet. Sometimes I sold some cake and I was too hungry and I ate them. I wanted to eat because I was hungry. One cake you can change for one cup of rice.

"We walk from Battambang, for two weeks, we walked from here to Sisophon. We walked at night time, not daytime because we are scared the Vietnam army can kill us. A lot of people they went with us.

"When we went in the forest, someone walk on the landmine. A lot of people died, so you walk step by step. Your foot on the footsteps of the one in front, if you walk a little bit different you walk on landmine and you are killed. We were scared but we needed to go.

"We carried some water - when we passed water we had a small bucket and hold the water and we exchanged the water for rice. One glass of water, just half they can give you one cup of rice. Those people were thirsty and they needed drink. If we didn't do that we would all die, because we didn't have anything to survive. Around two weeks, we arrived in the camp."

It was a United Nations camp on the Thai border. It was crowded with thousands of Cambodians all fleeing the Khmer Rouge. There was not enough food and shelter. So Somalai's father started another makeshift business to feed the family.

"He got some tools for fixing bicycles at the front of our shelter and he started putting a small sign, saying fixing bicycles. We get a little bit of money, 10 baht, 20 baht. One day we made 300 baht, it was good. We started going, going.

"[After] around four months, the UN started coming to visit and give rice. We had four bags per week and we could live like this and my dad fix bicycles and he bought some spare parts and sell more in the camp. He started getting a little bit stronger."

But the camp came under attack several times and the soldiers stole the family's savings during regular raids. It wasn't the safehaven the UN promised it would be.

The family walked back to Cambodia to start again, and Somalai and her sister started trading across the border.

"We went to Battambang. We start a business, buying vegetables from Cambodia to sell in Thailand, in the border. Mala with me, we go by train. We get up one o'clock in the morning, go to buy the vegetables to sell in Sisophon. We bought some fruit in Thailand and sell in Battambang. So we sold vegetables there and brought back fruit.

"The train was very dangerous, there were accidents from landmines. After maybe three kilometres the train exploded. It was very scary. The bodies flew higher than the coconut tree, in the air and dropped down. People died a lot, 250 died."

Somalai and Somala decided it was too dangerous to continue their vegetable business. But the alternatives weren't easy. The sisters saw advertisements for women to become landline clearers. At first their parents and siblings begged them not to apply.

"My dad said don't go to work there, it is too dangerous, you can lose your hand, eye, your body, your life. I said, if I follow the rules I will not lose my hands or eyes. I needed the money to support the family. I needed to work.

"Mala and me put in our CV. Mala got the interview. Mala started in 1995 - August. The next one - 1996 February - that was the one for me.

"We were very scared because of big, big mines. When you work with mines you don't know when you die or when you losing, you don't know what happened. You come back from work and think, 'I have survived, I am okay.' The morning you go back and still worry.

"We followed the rules but we worried about someone putting some mines on the land we cleared already. It made me worried. If you are not careful you can lose your hand, lose your face, your eye. In one minute it can explode.

"Working with mines, ladies are more careful than the men. The men are not scared of mines but the ladies are scared a lot. We follow the rules, the men are too rough."

In 2000, Somalai met an Australian engineer working for the United Nations in Cambodia. His name was Peter and they fell in love and got married. Somalai travelled to Australia for the first time, to Peter's home town near Bendigo in Victoria.

"In Cambodia, people like to sit at the front of the house to talk to the people. But Aussie people sit at the back of the house. I could not find the people. I said, 'where are the people?' Aussie people don't want to sit at the front, they want to sit at the back.

"The culture was very different. Cambodia people, the parents look after the kids and the parents find for the daughter for the future. Then the son and the daughter they look after the parents when they are old. We live together.

"Cambodia doesn't have pensions or homes for the old people. If you not have money and you're old, you have to go on the road and beg for money. The government in Cambodia not have the money to look after old people.

"In Australia the mother can live a long way away and the son and daughter live a long way away. Everybody is separate - relationship between the family is not close, it is a little bit far. I think people are lonely. When we visit my mother-in-law, when we go she cry, she have a tear. I say please come and live with us.

"I work in Cambodia in the field, I get three, four, five dollar per day. In Australia picking fruit is not hard, you can get $120 a day. It's easy and I enjoy work and see a lot of fruit. It makes me very happy. I like. I not want to stay home.

"My sister-in-law says why do you want to work hard - stay home, let Peter care for you. But I want to work, you cannot stop me.

"I went to work in [a] restaurant [and] after that I work in chicken factory. The supervisor there like me and say I work very fast. Aussie lady work slow because they never work hard. A lot of nationality go to work there in the chicken factory - I just go to work. I work fast, it's very nice too, making schnitzel, put some cheese in the chicken leg and make a wrap. But it's very cold.

"Cambodian people grow up in the hard country. My dream for the future in Australia is I would like to have one restaurant or can have a motel maybe 20 rooms and have a restaurant in there. I would really like that.

"The dream in the night time still scares me. You cannot forget. I dream of fighting a lot and people getting killed, people die. Cambodia people dream every night."

In Australia, Somalai's dream was to become a citizen. All the years of uncertainty, fear and danger during the Khmer Rouge regime left a deep desire for stability. Finally, on Australia Day, three years later, it came.

"When the day came, 17 people got citizenship and when I sat there, I felt as if I am in the sky. Hard to say anything, hard to believe I am in the good country. It make my body like in the sky, in the air, like my heart not in my body. I could not believe.

"When they called my name, my friends said welcome to being an Aussie. I am crying, I was shocked, I cannot say anything, I just cry. My mother-in-law and a lot of friends came to support. It was very, very good that day. It made me very happy. I am very proud I have become an Aussie and live in the good country."

Sally Sara is an award-winning ABC journalist who has reported from more than 30 countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.

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Credits

Reporting, photography: Sally Sara
Design, photo post-production: Ben Spraggon
Development: Andrew Kesper, Ash Kyd
Executive producer: Matthew Liddy

This post originally appeared on the ABC and was republished here with full permission. 

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