Word: liens
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Several hours later the walking nightmare began. All city inhabitants, including Lien's family and even hospital patients, were forced into the three major avenues and herded towards the countryside under the watchful eyes of Khmer Rouge soldiers, many of whom were even younger than Lien. Residents left behind homes, businesses, restaurants, and cinemas, carrying away only the barest necessities: in Lien's case a blanket. In the chaos and crush that ensued, she and her brothers were separated from the rest of their family, and the three have not seen them or their hometown since...
During the next four years Phnom Penh and other Cambodian cities turned into ghost towns. Lien, Ty and Van (her other brother) toiled in labor camps in the countryside, fulfilling Pol Pot's (the Khmer Rouge leader's) vision of a peasant farming nation. The Khmer Rouge were hostile and brutal against the people who had lived comfortably in the cities while they had struggled and fought in the jungles for a new Cambodia...
...Lien recalls that by virtue of their young ages (10, 11, and 17) and sparrow-like proportions, she and her brothers were able to survive within the regime that tolerated only non-threatening individuals with "blank" or "uncorrupted" minds. Execution followed any display of intelligence, education or disgruntlement and eavesdropping was used regularly to ferret out individuals and families who posed a potential threat to the new order...
...three siblings slept on dirt floors. Woken each morning before sunrise, they were shepherded to distant work fields, just to keep them tired. Independent canting was punishable by death; laborers were fed communal "meals"--always boiled water with a countable number of rice grains. Lien and her brothers quickly adapted to their new lifestyles because they were too delirious to do otherwise. Weak from overwork and malnutrition, they could only focus their attention on food and day-by-day survival. Together they conjured up imaginary servings, as if the words alone could nourish them. While a nearby campfire...
...regime prohibited familial affection. When Lien requested permission to pick a mango from a nearby tree, the guard made her vow that she intended to eat it herself and not to bring it back to the camp to share with her brothers. After taking a few bites of the unripe and bitter fruit, she handed the remaining portion over to the guard to prove that she did not, as she puts it, "love too much...