Recording
Leang Korn, 60, Koh Kong, March 15, 2013
Leang Korn, 60, Koh Kong, March 15, 2013 is a life-story interview with Leang Korn (លៀង កន), who survived sexual violence under the Khmer Rouge.[1] It was recorded on March 15, 2013, for the Cambodian Women's Oral History Project.[1]
About the recording
Leang Korn was in her late teens when the Khmer Rouge took power. She tells of being raped twice, both times by groups of low-level Khmer Rouge cadres.[1] The first attack came without warning at the end of a workday, when she was pulled into the jungle, beaten and raped until she lost consciousness. She woke alone in the forest and hid in the rice paddies until morning. The next day she was given no meal because she was not registered with the work unit.[1]
She harvested rice for a long time at the village of Ou Krarsa, and at one stage the harvest went on through the night to supply troops at the front. Anyone who dropped even one grain of rice was accused of being an enemy and punished.[1]
The second attack came in the final days of the regime, before the Vietnamese military invasion, when she was one of five women chosen to be sent to another village. Walking through the jungle at night, she was separated from the group and raped again.[1] The assault left her pregnant and led in the end to a full hysterectomy. Afterward, people from her own community told her to stay away, a rejection she describes later in her testimony as being as severe as the rape itself.[1]
She later moved from her native province to Koh Kong. As of 2013 she ran a home-stay guest house for nature tourists just outside TaTai, a conservation area of waterfalls, trees and wildlife. She baked cakes for sale in the market and cared for two young grandchildren.[1][2]
The interview
The research team spent the whole day with Leang Korn in Koh Kong and met her again in Phnom Penh a few weeks later for another interview. She needed few questions to begin telling her story.[3] Other researchers and filmmakers often approach her. The team stressed that she kept control over how her story would be used and shared.[2]
The collection
The project records the experiences of Cambodian women under the Khmer Rouge regime, including sexual and gender-based violence.[4] Its website carries selected transcript excerpts chosen by the narrators, not complete accounts. The project presents the testimonies as stories of trauma and tragedy and asks audiences to care for themselves as they respond.[4]
Credits
Leang Korn is the narrator. Theresa de Langis, an independent researcher, was lead interviewer, and You Sotheary and Thorn Sina were project assistants. The interview is in Khmer with an English translation.[1]
Access
The interview may not be used, published or copied without the explicit permission of the lead researcher. The full testimonies are archived at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. No item number or duration is published.[1][4]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Cambodian Women's Oral History Project narrator page
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cambodian Women's Oral History Project: Life Stories of Survival under the Khmer Rouge Regime, March 15, 2013, Koh Kong Interview (2013-05-16)
- ↑ Cambodian Women's Oral History Project, Field Notes
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Cambodian Women's Oral History Project: Life Stories of Survival under the Khmer Rouge Regime, Life Stories of Survival under the
Khmer Rouge Regime