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Cambodian genocide survivor recognised in New Year's Honours list

Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2020 8:07 pm
by CEOCambodiaNews
31st December 2019
Cambodian genocide survivor recognised in New Year's Honours list

A MAN who survived the Cambodian genocide and lost nearly 60 members of his family, has been recognised with a British Empire Medal in the New Year Honours list for his services to Holocaust Education.

Sokphal Din, from Popley, Basingstoke, was forced out of his home in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge on April 17, 1975, when he was just 17-years-old.

He has spoken extensively about the experience, and recalled opening the door to two soldiers wearing all black, one of whom pointed a gun at him and threatened to shoot his family if they did not leave their home immediately and get out of the city.

Speaking to the Gazette, he said: "I remember it clearly, I will never forget that image of this horrible face. I was thinking 'this isn't true'."

His father, six-year-old brother and dozens of other family members were among the victims of the Communist regime, which over four years was responsible for an estimated 2.2 million deaths through executions or disease in labour camps.

Sokphal left with his family and they travelled with the crowds without any water, eventually taken to a labour camp.

The 62-year-old endured hard labour in fields and rice paddies, working seven days a week under the hot sun, given a food allowance of just three spoonfuls of rice per day.

The agricultural areas became known as the Killing Fields, with people working themselves to death, beaten or killed if they disobeyed.

Sokphal said: "Most people they executed them by hitting them on the head and knocking them into a ditch. When I talked about it I used to cry but now I feel strong, I must be strong. It's not a story, it's my life experience. It's indescribable, and I can't believe that this could happen to me and my family."
https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/ne ... ours-list/

Re: Cambodian genocide survivor recognised in New Year's Honours list

Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 12:53 am
by pczz
Given the state of the british immigration servcie and the complete arse in charge of it they will probably get a deportation order next week