Gecko Tales

History of Tong Neak (2000) – Part One

My long time friend and colleague, Mr. Uon Seila had been pestering me to go with him to visit the village of his birth. I don't have a whole lot of free time so the idea of spending an entire day driving over roads full of pot holes did not appeal to me so much. But I agreed to go anyway. After all what are friends for?

So last Saturday we drove not all that far from the Vietnam border. We left Phnom Penh driving south to the city of Neak Luong which is in
Prey Veng province. At Neak Luong we drove onto the ferry with about 40 other vehicles
and crossed the Mekong River. We continued on another 20 kilometers along route one, where pot holes multiplied exponentially. At the town of Kompong Trebaek we left the paved road and followed a well maintained ox cart path deep into the country side, entering the bowels of some of Cambodia's poorest areas. After leaving the ox cart path we drove on rice paddy dikes, crossed small streams, and cut through dry rice fields (don't tell Harry I did this with his beloved truck). We kicked up some serious clouds of dust the whole way. We traveled off the improved road, perhaps 16 kilometers, finally arriving at the village of his birth, Tong Neak, which means "Flagpole of the Novite monk". There is quite a story behind the story behind this name but that will have to wait. This place was really in the middle of nowhere and it took us all of five hours to get there. It was as if nothing had changed here for over two thousand years. No relief and development agencies at all were working in the immediate area.

After introducing me to his mother and aunties, Seila walked me around me his part of the village. He explained to me how when he was about 11 years old his section of the village was hit by two different air strikes in January of 1971, and later in that year. The village was then completely destroyed. His house was burned down to the ground. That day we counted 24 bomb craters. He said he remembered that day very clearly as some VC were passing through his village when a US Army spotter plane came in and fired a smoke round to mark the position of the VC which were only meters away from his house. He said two minutes later they heard the thundering of engines as airplanes came in from the east with their pay loads. Then all hell broke loose around them as bombs blew apart trees, rice paddies, and structures, setting everything a flame. All the houses in his section of the village were burned to the ground. The bomb that fell on his house made such a deep crater that it drew water which they used for a couple of years until the water table dropped. Since there are no relief & development agencies working in the immediate area, he wanted me to see his land and the craters, hoping that somehow I could help-all the infrastructure had been destroyed. The place had never recovered from the bombing in early 1971. A second raid on VC cutting through that area later that year killed two fellow villagers and injured a woman holding her child who was decapitated in the bombing.

After the two bombings of his village, Seila and his four younger siblings and hitched a ride to Phnom Penh to seek refuge. When the Khmer Krahom (means red) took over in 1975, they were forced back to their birth place, Tong Neak. It took them what they were years to walk back, sleeping under trees on the side of road, but in reality, it was just over a month. Seila’s 2 year old brother died as soon as they arrived home. Mines were planted just a meter off the road.

Today his sixty year mother still lives there. Most of her children are grown and gone and she depends on some of the grand children and other relatives to get by. They have to walk about a kilometer to get water. They carry two buckets of water on opposite ends of a pole, balanced on their shoulders.

Seila is very much pro- American but he is kind of still waiting for some Americans to take responsibility and come to fix his village. He wants to write to the American Embassy or to Senator Dana Rohrbacher to ask for help. After all, he does have a point. What right did we have to blow up his village, burn down his house and destroy the infrastructure of his village? And the results of that bombing raid live on to this day. If you're still with me thus far, then you might consider helping this village. The village of Tong Neak needs two wells drilled. This would alleviate much of the hardship as they would have clean drinking water and water to grow vegetables during the dry season.

The wells cost about $200 apiece. Wouldn't that be a good project for a church, a Sunday school, or youth group to raise money for a couple wells? Well, you might say, 'this is not really missionary activity.' And I would say, ' it doesn't much matter what we call it, the Bible commands us to minister to the poor and oppressed, and not just as a platform for evangelism. We are to minister to the poor regardless!

I did ask Seila if there was a Christian presence anywhere nearby. Seila said no. He said he had told his mother and aunts about Jesus on a couple of his visits but they were unable to comprehend the message. He explained me that it would be difficult for some one from the outside to come in have much success, as they would tend not to trust outsiders. This is why drilling a couple of wells would be a great project. First, it would meet their physical needs. Second, it would give us Christians an opportunity to respond biblically to people in need. Third, by doing what we should be doing with the poor, those being helped will wonder who wants to help and why? Then there would be a natural context for sharing the reason for the hope that is within us - Jesus Christ. By helping dig wells in this village, the people can experience the gospel rather than just hear the words. Jesus announced that with his arrival into this world, he brought the Kingdom with Him. And people who had contact with Him experienced some of what the Kingdom of God was like. This is our mission, too. Christians are to be agents of transformation, working alongside Jesus (Col 1:19) as He reconciles all things to Himself, whether it be souls, systems or infrastructures.

And speaking of stories of redemption and reconciliation….not to far from his village was where the Northern Zone, KR from Kompong Thom and North Central areas massacred the Khmer Rouge in the Eastern Zone (Khmer Krahom Bophaeh). In 1978, the cadre of the KR the Eastern Zone, who had some association with Vietnam (including Hun Sen, Chea Sim, Heng Samrin, Pen Sovan, etc.) wanted to stop the killing of their fellow countrymen. During this time, Seila in his mid teens, was forced to crush stone in a quarry from early morning to late evening, seven days a week. One day he was searching for a tree trunk heavy laden with dew so he could soak it up with his Krama and quench his thirst. Walking back he stumbled on a semi-covered mass grave of the Eastern zone cadre who were killed by the Northern Zone KR. He fled not wanting to be discovered as one knowing about this carefully covered up massacre. He noticed trucks, each day, dumping more bodies into the graves. One of the Eastern Zone KR Commanders who himself had killed fellow countrymen was sick of it and was ready to flee to Vietnam when the purges began. Thousands of Eastern zone KR soldiers were killed.

To be continued…..

Labels: US Bombing Destroys Cambodian Village 1971