Sometimes, the
Angkar would catch him sneaking out to collect the food at night and beat him up in front of other children.
Heuveline and Poch's conclusion understates the difference between pre-Khmer Rouge marriage and marriage arranged by the
Angkar. As one interviewee said, marriages in Democratic Kampuchea "had nothing to do with Cambodian tradition." (29)
Angkar became the rallying cry, the central organizing concept, and the justification for a new Democratic Kampuchea.
Collective loyalty to the '
Angkar' was emphasised and family bonds were discouraged.
"The structure of power in Cambodia from 1975-1978 was that of the Communist Party of Kampuchea "; its prescriptions were absolute.(3) In a regime obsessed with counterespionage paranoia, this gave reign to the nightmares of the state security officers" A climatic developed in which everyone was suspected of being an enemy and in which units of spies or Kang chhlop (composed mainly of children) monitored what the communes said, reporting to the
Angkar.
Angkar exploited the minds of gullible children, who would innocently implicate even their own parents.
In 1975, during the sudden forced evacuation of the population to different parts of the country by
Angkar, my mother's family met a Khmer Rouge cadre.
The revolutionary organisation of the Khmer Rouge (
angkar padevat) simply developed these ideas to their logical conclusion.
Other local premieres include
Angkar, a documentary by French-Cambodian director Neary Adeline Hay about her father's return to Cambodia for the first time since the Khmer Rouge.
During this period the Khmer Rouge established a base of operations in the area commanded by the notorious Ta Mok and frequented by many of the Organisation's (
Angkar's) top leadership.
Premiering at the International Film Festival Rotterdam last week,
Angkar follows Khonsaly Hay as he travels around Phnom Penh seeking what remains of the house and pharmacy he was forced to leave behind during the Khmer Rouge-instigated mass exodus from the city on April 17, 1975.
The performance in question, created as part of the Pka Sla Krom
Angkar project, is a dance that tells the true stories of victims of forced marriage.
It is part of Phka Sla Krom
Angkar, a judicial reparations project focusing on forced marriages and sexual violence in Democratic Kampuchea.