LYNN — As part of the district’s new Genocide Education program, Cambodian Genocide survivor and author Seng Ty told two groups of high-school students about his childhood during the genocide.
Ty, the author of the memoir “The Years of Zero: Coming of Age Under the Khmer Rouge,” is currently a guidance counselor in Lowell’s school district.
“I’m hoping my story will help other young people who try to overcome their life and (know) that they’re not alone in this world,” Ty said.
Ty spoke to students at Lynn English and Lynn Tech on Wednesday morning, starting his story in 1968 in the Kampong Speu province of Cambodia, where he was born.
“That was the year that the U.S. bombed Cambodia,” Ty told the students. “It did not kill the Vietnamese soldiers, it killed thousands and thousands of civilians in Cambodia. And, that’s how the Khmer Rouge rose at that time.”
Ty’s father was a doctor and his mother was a housewife who emphasized the importance of education to all of her children. Because of this, Ty’s older brother got a scholarship to study in France.
Ty said that up until 1975, his parents would take him and his siblings to hid in bomb shelters to escape the war.
On April 17, 1975, the day of the Cambodian New Year, the Khmer Rouge, a radical Communist movement in the country, drove in tanks through his neighborhood.
“I remember that day. I ran to my mother while she was preparing food for the Cambodian New Year. I said, ‘Mother, the war’s come to an end, the Khmer Rouge is here! They’re very nice, they’re smiling, everyone’s cheering,’” Ty said.
He said his entire family was so happy that morning.
“That afternoon, everything was turned like a monster, and I was so confused,” Ty said.
Ty ran out into the streets, where he heard the Khmer Rouge order everyone to gather what they could and leave their homes. Ty said they were told they would be back in three days. He rushed back into his home to tell his parents.
He said his father knew exactly what was going on and told the family to pack as quickly as possible.
“The Khmer Rouge started to execute, kill everybody who refused to leave their home, who were in the hospital. So, everywhere on the streets was just chaos and confusion,” Ty said.
He recalled that was the first time he saw someone die in front of him.
Ty’s family and others walked with no destination, just following orders until they ended up in the jungle. They were there for three months harvesting vegetables, and were then sent to another part of Cambodia, which Ty described as a flooding village, to work in the rice fields.
“When we arrived in that village, this is the house that the Khmer Rouge put my family, seven of us, and others, about eight families,” Ty said, showing the students a picture of a tiny hut-like structure. “We slept on top of each other.”
Ty’s brothers were sent to separate work camps, and Ty was sent to work in the rice fields with children around his age.
He said during that time, the Khmer Rouge would keep a close eye on his family because Ty looked Chinese, and they were skeptical of his race and the family’s wealth.
“That night… I heard a couple of the Khmer Rouge soldiers come in and take my father from the (home) while he was sleeping next to me. I knew right away that the Khmer Rouge will not bring my father back,” Ty said.
Ty’s father was killed right behind the village they lived in.
He said many others died from overworking or starvation, as they were give one small bowl of rice per day.
“A year later, living in that house, I was the only person left. My mother was the last one to die,” Ty said. “When she died from overwork, I had to carry her and bury her (with) my own hands.”
Ty was 9 years old when he buried his mother. After it was discovered that he was the only one in the home, the Khmer Rouge sent him to live at an mobile camp for orphans, which was in the middle of a rice field.
Ty said he and other orphans would steal food and get caught, which led to them being tortured.
“I’d rather get tortured by the Khmer Rouge, as long as my stomach was full of food,” he said.
One time, Ty recalled he had been so horribly beaten that the Khmer Rouge thought he was dead and threw him in a canal.
“For some reason, I feel like someone came to rescue me, saying, ‘You need to get up and go back to your orphanage camp!’” Ty said.
He saw children die in the rice field almost every day, as others were “brainwashed” by the Khmer Rouge.
“When I saw that happen to the other kids, being brainwashed and kill, take other peoples’ lives, I said to myself, ‘It doesn’t matter how the Khmer Rouge give me food or ask me to become the leader, I would not. I would not. I’d rather take my own life instead of taking somebody else’s life,’” Ty said.
In December 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia.
“The minute I heard the gunshots, the rockets, and the tanks roll on the highway, I was so happy. I did not even care who it was coming… I just wanted to get out of this Khmer Rouge area,” Ty said.
The Khmer Rouge took the orphans and headed back toward the jungle. Ty said he knew no matter what, he was not going to follow them, so he hid in the rice field until they were gone.
He walked to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capitol city.
“When I got there, I had no one to depend on and I thought I would be able to be reunited with my brother who went to study in France,” Ty said.
He came across a picture of his brother, which was taken by the Khmer Rouge right before they executed him. They had brought his brother back to Cambodia from France.
“At the time, I felt so empty,” Ty said.
He got onto the roof of a train, and made it to a refugee camp on the Thai border. It was there that he was interviewed by a writer from Time magazine.
A couple from Amherst saw his story and adopted him.
Ty has been living in Massachusetts since then, and is married with two children in Lowell.
