Page 252 - Demo

A FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE TO LADY LIBERTY 1Than Tan, Sunheng Than, David Tan, 6, and Janet Mey, 5. (Phoenix/Kirk Photo)It was like being in the army. We had to get up early, work longhours in the fields. It was hard because we weren 't used to it.Food was scarce %u2014 a small bowl of rice two or three times a day.I knew I could not live in aCommunist country. I said,if they catch me and kill mewhile I am trying to get out,it is better than living here.Continued From lWeeding Pagemission to the United Nations in 1973.It all ended in April of 1975, when the Khmer Rouge took over and began their program of forced evacuation of the citydwellers into the countryside. Sunheng and her family were taken to farms near the Vietnamese border %u2014 Sunheng and one of her brothers, because they were single, were sent to a commune with more rigorous discipline, which Sunheng calls %u201ca prison without walls.%u201d%u201cIt was like being in the army,%u201d she recalls of her more than three years in the commune. We had to get up early, work long hours in the fields. It was hard, because we weren%u2019t used to it.%u201d Food was scarce %u2014 two or three times a day she received a small bowl of rice and some thin soup without any meat. Sunheng, whose frame is slight and who stands about five feet tall, says she lost about 30 pounds during her years on the commune.Camaraderie and friendship were constantly undermined by the fear of informers. Spies crawled underneath the living quarters at night to catch bits of incriminating conversation. %u201cIn order to survive down there,%u201d says Sunheng, %u201cyou had to be quiet. You had to keep everything inside.%u201dALLOWED TO VISIT PARENTS She remembers that after about a year she was allowed to visit her parents for a short while. When she was reunited with them and they saw one another%u2019s condition, %u201cI had pity on them and they had pity on me %u2014 but we could not say it, because the Communists would say you were romantic and sentimental, that you opposed the present regime.%u201d More than a million %u201copponents of the government%u201d died in Cambodia during the 45 months of Khmer Rouge rule.In January of 1979, some hope arrived in the form of a Vietnamese invasion army that overthrew the Khmer Rouge and established a Vietnamese satellite government. Sunheng rejoined her family and immediately began formulating plans for an escape to the United States. ITie most difficult part of her journey was just beginning.Sunheng%u2019s family had a friend in Saigon who they thought might be able to help them in escaping, so Sunheng decided, over her parents%u2019 objections, to go and meet this friend. She did, clandestinely %u2014 Vietnamese were allowed to travel between Vietnam and Cambodia but Cambodians were not %u2014 and so began a series of increasingly dangerous border crossings.Arriving in Saigon, she was able to cable her relatives in France and America %u2014 the first contact in more than four years. Eng Ly, whose husband had gone to work as a financial analyst for Dean Witter Reynolds after the collapse of the government he represented, was astonished that her sister had survived the widely-publicized atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. Sunhengwas equally surprised at being able to locate Eng Ly. %u201c I was so happy because I though my family might have gone back to Cambodia and gotten killed,%u201d she says.After three months Sunheng%u2019s family %u2014 parents, a brother and sister and several children %u2014 joined her in Saigon, but despite the solace of regular communications with overseas relatives, the prospects werebleak. %u201cWe were told it would take ten years, or five, to get out of Vietnam,%u201d says Siinhpncr The nnlv alternative seemed to bejoining the %u201cboat people,%u201d who smuggled themselves out of Vietnam at great nsk on small boats.Then another possibility arose: Eng Ly cabled that officials in a refugee organization in New York she had contacted said there was a refugee camp for Cambodians in Thailand, from which it would be possible to leave for America under the sponsorship of Eng Ly and her husband, who were now American citizens. The only hitch: to get there Sunheng and her family would have to cross Cambodia, where there were still pockets of fighting between the Vietnamese and the remnants of the Khmer Rouge.BETTER THAN LIVING THEREBut Sunheng had long ago made up her mind. %u201cI knew I could not live in a Communist country,%u201d she says. %u201cI said, if they catch me and kill me while I am trying to get out, it is still better than living here.%u201dSo she and about a dozen members of her extended family, from her sexagenarian parents to small children, contacted some new friends who were engaged in smuggling across the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Since smuggling was winked at by some of the border guards, it seemed a relatively secure way to return to Cambodia.Accordingly, they all dressed in Vietnamese style and crossed the border with their smuggler friends. They returned to their old home, Pnomh Penh, by the unusual means of a troop transport %u2014 trucks frequently carried Vietnamese troops from the capital to the hinterlands and then returned to the city with a load of ordinary passengers.MADE USE OF SMUGGLERSAfter a short stay there they located a truck that could take them most of the way to the Thailand border. They made use of smugglers again when they reached a town 15 miles from the border without knowing where the refugee camp was. The smugglers lent them bicycles and gave them directions.It was on her arrival at the Khnoidang refugee camp after about a month of travel, that Sunheng had her closest shave. She was accosted by several former Cambodian soldiers, who thought she was Vietnamese because of her clothes and her light skin (most Cambodian smugglers and refugees were dark-skinned). She escaped injury or death by speaking to them in Cambodian until they were convinced of her authenticity.Now that they were safe, it was only a matter of waiting until U.S. authorities processed Eng Ly%u2019s sponsorship forms, which would allow the family to emigrate to the United States. Sunheng and her relatives fared better than many of the other 10,000 Cambodians in the camp, both because they had relatives abroad to help them and because their education and knowledge of French enabled them to find work at thePresentation of the Statue of Liberty In Parla, IB M .(B a rb a ra C o h e n , N e w Y ork B o u n d B o o k s )HAPPY BIRTHDAY To The Great Lady Who Guards The HarborPAUL GERTZ REALTY211 Court St. %u2022 Bklyn (718)625-3700We%u2019re CelebratingWith AStore- WideSale!11Beautiful Lingerie%u201c Be the Best Undressed Woman in Town%u201d353 Bleecker Street, New York 10014(212)675-3070 7 Atlantic: Ave , Broklyn Hts., N.Y. 11201 (718)522-0010 Closed Sundays in July %u25a0Open Thursday Evening for Your ConvenienceAGUSTIN'SFine Groceries %u2022 Importedbpeciahies170 Court St. UL5-8028LIBERTY IS HERE TO STAYBut If She H ad To M ove,W e Could D o It!CALL K E N N Y MOVING?HOUSEHOLD %u2022 COMMEPCIAI STORAGE %u2022 PACKINGhr No DOTIA36ICC MC-41098LO CA L %u2022 INTERSTATE.%u25a0p c m . FLORIDA, CALIF., TEXASAgents For Global Van Llnea133 7th A venue, Brooklyn. N i 11215lR a ffa H esCLAM BAR & RESTAURANT125 Montague Street858-0024 858-0037DAMASCUS BAKERYSpecialty Goodies on Atlantic AvenueA l l V o o r D m m r lRetail Outlet195 Atlantic Ave.Main Office and Plant56 Gold Street(718)855-1456P ag e 18, T H E P H O E N IX , Ju ly 3 ,1 9 8 6