Chhouk Rin, the former Khmer Rouge commander who led a 1994 train ambush that killed three foreigners, is near death and struggling to pay medical bills, his son said.
“To sell the house he is staying in is his last choice for him to get some money for medical treatment,” Chhouk Ra said by telephone Tuesday. “If he sells it, he will have no house to stay in, but there is no other way.”
The former commander suffers from a number of maladies, Chhouk Ra said, including pneumonia, liver disease, malaria, diabetes and heart problems. He said hospital costs are at $40 a day.
Chhouk Rin shakily emerged from a two-day coma in January, when friends said he was suffering from a tetanus infection caused by a shrapnel wound in combat. He received treatment at Phnom Penh’s Calmette Hospital before his discharge Jan 27.
Chhouk Rin has not recovered, his son said.
“He can hardly speak, though he can hear. He is too weak to get out of bed by himself,” Chhouk Ra said. “It appears sometimes he is going to die. On some days, five or six times he is meeting death.”
The Phnom Penh Appeals Court sentenced Chhouk Rin in 2002 to life in prison for the ambush in Kep municipality that left 13 Cambodians dead and led to the kidnapping and execution of three Western backpackers.
Despite the decision, Chhouk Rin has kept his house in Kep’s Phnom Voar commune and said he would go to prison if authorities came for his arrest.
His lawyer, Puth Theavy, said Tuesday the government should absorb the medical costs because of Chhouk Rin’s contributions and legacy in his village, where he is widely revered.
“I have assisted him in many things, but now I have no money either,” Puth Theavy said, adding that he lent some $3,000 to Chhouk Rin.
