Helicopter

By Seksa Sea

A time in which death and torture was a regular. The period of Cambodia known as the infamous reign of the Khmer Rouge, the Communist Party of Kampuchea. The horrors started in the 1970s, specifically 1975, and continued for four more years, until the ends of the Khmer Rouge. This is a story of a child named Kosal and his family, in their survival from the beginning to the end of the Khmer Rouge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seksa Sea
• Release date: Dec 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310131554

Seksa Sea

Seksa Sea was born in Cambodia and is a student, part of the MYP for International Schools. Specifically, he currently studies in ISPP, or the International School of Phnom Penh. As of now, the first book he wrote is "Helicopter", about the Khmer Rouge.

Book preview

Helicopter

By Seksa Sea

Contents

Prologue

Cambodia

They’re Back Again

Mandatory

Walked

Hard Labor

Hunger

Last Words

Soldiers

Flight

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

To Dad

Prologue

Many events have lead to the genocide of Cambodia in 1975 to 1979, that has been caused by the infamous rule of Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge was a time period in which Cambodia was changed greatly in terms of agricultural and technological development. Millions of people died during the four year period in which Cambodia was renamed to Democratic Kampuchea. Before the Khmer Rouge took power of Cambodia . This time was also known as Year Zero for Cambodians when the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, the capital city. Before the events of the Khmer Rouge, the country was named the Kingdom of Cambodia by King Sihanouk in 1953. In 1965, Sihanouk allowed North Vietnamese troops to enter Cambodian grounds in order to help with their mission against the US government in South Vietnam. Because of this, Cambodia had broken off the relations between the U.S. and Cambodia. In 1969, the U.S. began bombing the North Vietnamese troops that were in Cambodia, which affected not only the North Vietnamese, but also Cambodian civilians. By 1970, the Prime Minster of Cambodia, Lon Nol formed a military coup to overthrow Sihanouk which had succeeded, leading to the exile of Sihanouk in China. During the few years leading up to the events of 1975, Lon Nol had became the leader of Cambodia. However, during this time, Cambodia had lost many of it’s land to the North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge troops. By the time of 1975, Lon Nol is then overthrown by the Khmer Rouge and Sihanouk becomes the head of state once again, only to resign the following year.

This story will describe the events of the Khmer Rouge in the four year period from the very start in 1975 to the very end in 1979.

Cambodia

April 17th, 1975. I looked into the horizon; there I saw a dark green colored vehicle, a military tank, speeding towards the dusty streets of Phnom Penh. Cambodia is generally a blazing hot city with dirt brown buildings and smoky clouds. The area is either filled with dust or dirt; there isn’t any place without dust. When the expensive cars drive by, it creates a small burst of warm wind to the side of the streets. Since the war between us and the Americans started a few years back when I was just eight years old, I’ve been hearing many loud noises of screams and explosions throughout the night. I wonder why their driving the tanks here in the streets I thought to myself. Looking around I saw hundreds of people gathered along the sides of the roads, all of them waving their hands left and right, left and right. Chey You Kampuchea, Chey You Kampuchea, the gigantic crowd shouted with pride and happiness. My five older siblings (three sisters and one brother), my mother, and my father started to cheer along with the other civilians.

Even though I had no clue about what had just happened, I started to chant along with them, I laughed and smiled full of joy. Thank You! Thank You! I tried to yell at the Cambodian soldiers sitting on top of each military tank. What are they doing? I asked my eldest brother, Sakol.

He replied, You see, we’ve just won the war against the Americans, we are victorious, the great and powerful Kampuchea! He then added on No more fear, no more bombs, it’s going to be peaceful from now on, okay Seang?

I smiled back at him, I hope so too, I hate the sounds of explosions. Today was the day in which we succeeded, we finally drove back the American forces, and we actually beat the Americans with our own Cambodian forces. My oldest brother, Sakol was just a scrawny, but smart looking man. Throughout the years of schooling he was always the top student in the classes. He knew everything from street smarts to school smarts. He was the man of the house besides my father. My brother even earned his own money and supplied money for the house with his vast knowledge on economics and trading old magazines and newspapers. Even at his young age of 18, he understood the world like my dad. Growing up, he wants to become a businessman and earn lots of money. When I grow up, I want to be just like him, just like my brother.

Everyone, let’s go back inside to our house. The soldiers already left. Come on, hurry up, my dad said to my entire family. My dad was a doctor, a famous doctor in Phnom Penh as a matter of fact. Whoever had trouble in health or needed medication would always come to my dad’s workplace. I’d see a new visitor every day as he was not only kind, but helpful to the entire population of Phnom Penh. At this time, my dad was already old, aged around 40-50, I could never remember. In fact, my dad was so well known that if I said I was his son to random people throughout Phnom Penh, they would treat me respectfully. I could only think positive thoughts about him; my dad is a kind man, respectful, optimistic, caring, and selfless. He would always bring fruit to the prisoners in the prison at Phnom Penh every week since they are underfed in the prison cells. Not only civilians know him, but also prisoners and throughout the entire Phnom Penh recognized my dad. That’s what I love about him, he is an outstanding person unlike most people he is what you can call a hero.

After the parade ending with the soldiers leaving the streets of Phnom Penh, my family and I were back at our house and I said to my youngest sister Ping who is 6 years old Hey! Wanna plays hide and seek?

She obviously responded with I’ll go call Sophea and Lynn. Both Sophea and Lynn are my two older sisters, one being 16 and another is 22 years old. After a few moments later, Sophea, Lynn, and Ping all gathered out in the front of our small house. We then counted to twenty with Ping being the seeker, and during the twenty seconds we hid. It took a very long time before Ping could actually find us since she isn’t very bright or smart for her age. After finishing playing hide and seek for around an hour or even longer, it was time for lunch in the top floor of the house.

This house was two floors high and was starting to get old since we bought this house when Ping was born. It was tinted brown due to the large amounts of dust that would gather on the wall. The front door was just a