Royal Buscombe; 45 year member of PPSEAWA
Los Angeles Chapter Report
PDF Version of this Bulletin
Stories from Hell
by Ratha Duong
Editor's note: This story was written under a pen name. It was recently re-printed in Newsweek Magazine, April 27, 1998 in an article about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. The original and other stories by this Minnesota Social Worker can be found in a book Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors, edited by Kim DePaul. This author has a grant and is now writing her own book.
The soldiers put me in a jail that looked like a cage. I heard a girl next to my cage cry with sorrow, and I smelled the stench of blood... In the morning I told her not to cry. We heard the mean voice of a lady. In her hand she held a bowl of rice soup for my friend. Instead of giving it to her to eat, that witch poured the rice soup on the girl's hair, and she tried to reach it with her tongue while the witch laughed. Then I saw the girl's body shake, her mouth open and her eyes staring at me. She died calling my name. I cried without tears. Two soldiers came to remove her body. Only later did I realize that this was one of my high school friends. She was the only good friend I had.
