A 22-year-old former bar worker, disfigured by acid and lacking adequate
medication and money, made a dash for freedom from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom
Penh where she is now seeking justice for her injuries and illegal
imprisonment.
Som Rasmey, 22, now back with her family, disfigured for life from the acid attack
by her lover's wife, and her baby is still kidnapped
Som Rasmey said she was attacked with acid by her lover's
wife then spirited out of Cambodia to stop her laying a complaint with the
authorities.
Speaking softly and sobbing quietly, Rasmey recounted her
story at the premises of an NGO which wished to remain anonymous for fear she
would be harmed by her former lover.
Rasmey was a Remy Martin cognac girl
at CADO restaurant at Prek Leap when she met 42-year-old Lim Sok Heng, Royal
Cambodian Armed Forces chief of logistics at Region 2 base in Kampong Cham
province in 1998. They maintained a secret relationship for six to seven months
before Heng's wife, Minh, found them out. Sok Heng eventually agreed to end the
relationship, though by that time Rasmey had given birth to their
daughter.
The break, however, was a short one. Sok Heng duped Rasmey into
going to a hotel in Kampong Cham, from where she was abducted and kept in a
village where he visited her regularly.
However, his wife Minh discovered
the relationship was continuing and on November 6 last year she and four other
women went to the village, grabbed Rasmey and poured acid on her face and body.
They also seized her newborn daughter.
Rasmey was taken to Kampong Cham
hospital by a neighbor then later the same day moved to Phnom Penh and three
days later taken to Vietnam.
She said the hospital in Vietnam provided
little help to her. She had no money to pay hospital workers for treatment or
medicine; instead she treated her wounds every day by bathing them in boiled,
salted water to try to stop infection.
After about 45 days in the
hospital she was moved into a rented house in Ho Chi Minh City where she was
under constant guard.
Som Rasmey, 22, now back with her family, disfigured for life from the acid attack
by her lover's wife, and her baby is still kidnapped
She said Lim Sok Heng visited her in Vietnam just
before Khmer new year and told her she would not return to Cambodia.
She
said she asked him to take her back home to see her family and her daughter but
he refused and threatened her saying: "There is no way you are ever seeing your
mother, brother and sisters ever again in your life."
She said she
believed she was sent to Vietnam to stop her making a complaint to the
police.
"They left me living a hard life while they had happiness here,"
she said weeping.
Rasmey's mother told the Post that she had heard many
rumors that her daughter could not have survived such a serious injury and she
believed she had lost her.
She said Sok Heng threatened her when she
tried to enlist the aid of an NGO to help.
She said that Sok Heng told
her: "I look after her now. If you still file the complaint I will shoot her
myself."
But on May 1 Rasmey's imprisonment ended. Her guard was bitten
by a dog and taken to hospital. Seizing the opportunity she fled the house and,
using sign language, hired a succession of moto-taxis to take her to the
border.
Once there she managed to borrow $15 from a Cambodian taxi driver
to pay for the moto trips on the understanding her family would repay the money
once she arrived in Phnom Penh. She was detained for two and a half hours by
Vietnamese border officials who were reluctant to let her pass without a
passport or identification. However she said they took pity on her and
eventually let her cross the border.
She arrived in Phnom Penh at 11pm
and had an emotional reunion with her family.
"I met my mother as if I
was reborn," she said with tearfully. "We were very, very happy and cried
because it had been such a long time that we waited for this day to
arrive."
She said initially there was some confusion about her identity
because she was so scarred and disfigured; however, they recognized her
voice.
"My older sister tried to push me off the stairs when I arrived
home, but I said to her that I am Rasmey, your sister," she said.
Rasmey
has now filed a complaint with the Kampong Cham provincial court asking for
$50,000 compensation and the return of her baby daughter.
Contact PhnomPenh Post for full article
Post Media Co LtdThe Elements Condominium, Level 7
Hun Sen Boulevard
Phum Tuol Roka III
Sangkat Chak Angre Krom, Khan Meanchey
12353 Phnom Penh
Cambodia
Telegram: 092 555 741
Email: [email protected]