DC-Cam Field Trip Report: Memot District, Tbong Khmum Province Photos by Sok Vannak May 26 and 30, 2025 Documentation Center of Cambodia Archives

From May 26 to May 30 2025, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) team, including Long Dany and Sok Vannak, traveled from Phnom Penh to Tbong Khmom Province. The purpose of the field trip was to search for witnesses who may have knowledge about POW/MIA cases in Kampong Cham Province (now Tbong Khmom Province) during the early 1970s. The DC-Cam team began their search in Memot Commune, Memot District, Tbong Khmom Province. The team conducted interviews with three witnesses in the commune who had met and conversed with an American who had been detained by the Viet Cong close to the Cambodia-Vietnam border and later turned over to the Khmer Rouge in Memot District. At the Memot District Security Office in Sangkum Meanchey Chas Village, Memot Commune, Memot District, Tbong Khmom Province, the Khmer Rouge arrested the American. The witnesses further reported that, following the Khmer Rouge’s rise to power in 1975, he was transferred to another detention facility known as the Coffee Plantation Security Office, situated in Lo Village, Kampoan Commune, also within Memot District. Between May 29 and 30, 2025, the research team conducted a field visit to Kampoan Commune, Memot District, Tbong Khmom Province. During this visit, the team interviewed four additional survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime. These survivors provided critical information regarding the American's detention at the Coffee Plantation Security Office, as well as the specific location where the Khmer Rouge executed both the American and his wife. In total, the DC-Cam team interviewed seven Khmer Rouge survivors who witnessed the POW/MIA case in Memot District, Tbong Khmom Province. The following is a summary of the testimonies provided by seven Khmer Rouge era survivors who witnessed events related to the POW/MIA case in Memot District, Tbong Khmom Province: