Chorn-Pond recounts genocide survival, plays flute

Donald M. Hoegg
Assistant Online Editor

The Etownian Online
Thursday November 06 2008

Thursday November 06 2008 Internationally-renowned peace activist and Cambodia native Arn Chorn-Pond returned to Elizabethtown Wednesday to address an audience of over 500 in Leffler Chapel. Chorn-Pond, of the critically-acclaimed documentary “The Flute Player,” is best known for his humanitarian work in Cambodia.

Before the Communist Khmer Rouge overthrew the Cambodian government in 1975, Chorn-Pond lived with his large family in the city of Battambang. Although the family was poor, the children were able to live a marginally normal life, blissfully unaware of the horrors of war.

“I knew there was a war going on, but I didn’t care. I was just a little kid,” Chorn-Pond recalled. “I remember seeing a movie about the World War II, and I thought it was cool.”

That would all change, however, once the Khmer Rouge took power. Soldiers forced the family from their home, and eventually put Chorn-Pond in a work camp with hundreds of other children, aged six to 14. They were forced to work 20 hours per day and suffered through beatings, disease and starvation. Chorn-Pond pointed out that, from a group of 500 prisoners, only 50 survived.

Coming from a long line of musicians and performers, Chorn-Pond survived the 1975 Khmer Rouge genocide by playing the Communists’ propaganda music. Of the five musicians chosen by the guards, three were killed after a week.

In addition to playing for officers, soldiers forced him to aid with the executions of his countrymen.

“Doctors, teachers, anyone connected to the west … they killed them,” Chorn-Pond said. “I thought I was going to be killed because of my light skin.”

As the genocide continued, Chorn-Pond was charged with disrobing the corpses before moving them to mass graves. For those still clinging to life, soldiers forced him to use a small axe to kill them with a blow to the back of the head. Had he shown any emotion, he would have suffered the same fate.

“I knew it was the wrong thing to do,” Chorn-Pond said, “but it was life or death.”

When Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1975, the Khmer Rouge forced Chorn-Pond and thousands of other children into service on the front lines. Fighting the Vietnamese (who were hardened by a decade of combat with American forces) meant almost certain death. Though Chorn-Pond survived, many of his comrades were not as fortunate.

“The worst feeling is holding your friend as he dies,” he said with a faltering voice. “There’s not much you can do.”

Weakened by malaria and years of malnutrition, he fled into the jungle to escape death on the battlefield.

“I went crazy,” Chorn-Pond said, referring to the weeks he spent walking through the jungle. “All I could hear was my family’s screams … I just kept walking.”

Eventually, he reached a refugee camp in Thailand, where he met his American father, Peter Pond. He returned with Pond to New Hampshire, along with two other Cambodian boys. Chorn-Pond struggled to adapt to American culture, and explained that he acted out against his American parents out of frustration and emotional anguish.

However, Chorn-Pond was able to find his calling in helping others. He returned to Cambodia to help troubled youths by teaching them to play traditional Cambodian music, which was all but forgotten after years of war and genocide. He urges students to learn about the injustices of the past so that they are not repeated. He has dedicated his life to helping Cambodian children escape the lifestyle he suffered.

“The money I got today I use tomorrow to help 100 kids for a month … girls who would have to prostitute themselves,” Chorn-Pond said.

He concluded his presentation by playing his flute for the audience to resounding applause.