KhmerTimes-Sept 3, 2026

At 78, Thun Non recounts the terror and hunger of forced labour under a brutal regime and her endless wait for answers about relatives who never returned from the work camps. At night, when the forest fell quiet save for the howling of jackals, Thun Non raised her hands and prayed. She did not pray for food or comfort. She prayed to survive, to see her family again and to return to her home. Nearly five decades later, Non, now 78, remembers those nights with clarity. She remembers the hunger, the whispered warnings, the exhausting work and the fear that followed her through the Khmer Rouge regime. She remembers carrying an infant while harvesting rice during the day and threshing it at night, and she remembers watching people disappear. Most of all, she remembers the people who never came home. In 1978, Non was among the members of three families forcibly evacuated from their hometown in Prey Veng province. They were sent west to Pursat. When the Khmer Rouge regime collapsed in 1979, only Non’s immediate family returned home. Her older sister Thun Phuong, her husband Dy and their family were gone. So were her younger brother Thun An, his wife Chea Leap and their family. Nearly 20 people had disappeared. No bodies were recovered and no explanation came. After all these years, Non is still waiting for answers. Non’s journey began with a march. The evacuees left their hometown on foot, stopping at night at Wat Khleang, Chheu Kach Mountain and the eastern bank of the Mekong at Neak Loeung. As Non travelled with a baby in her arms, cadres took the group by boat from Neak Loeung to Phnom Penh. They arrived at Chraing Bakk after dark, with little time to rest or eat before cadres called their names and ordered them onto a train bound for Pursat. The train arrived before dawn, and the journey continued on foot. At one point, the exhausted group reached a river and stopped to cook rice. Before the rice could boil, cadres ordered them to move again, saying, “Don’t cook. We’re almost there.” They eventually reached a communal dining hall where, for a moment, food appeared available. Non saw bowls of rice and dishes of pork arranged along a long table, but before she could eat, cadres shouted at the evacuees to stop, claiming there would be more food ahead. It did not come.

Read more at: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/502017175/a-khmer-rouge-survivors-48-year-search-for-her-missing-family/