Omar Havana

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The Bucolic Life of a Cambodian Grandmother Accused of Mass Killings

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ANLONG VENG, CAMBODIA &nda... Havana for The New York Times

ANLONG VENG, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 03: A fisherman collects his fishing nets during the early hours of the morning at the O'Chik Lake, also known as Ta Mok's Lake, on February 03, 2017 in Anlong Veng, Cambodia. Formerly a big lake, O'Chik dam, which gave Anlong Veng its name, began to be built by Khmer Rouge Commander Ta Mok – also known as Brother Number 5 or The Butcher – in order to build a large water reservoir and fishing grounds for people's daily consumption. Almost all the locals at the time were involved in the dam's construction, which was done in three stages and finished in 1994. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

O'ANGRE VILLAGE, CAMBO... Havana for The New York Times

O'ANGRE VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 02: 43-year-old Kang Rin, Im Chaem's daughter, brushes dry leaves from the ground in front of one of the two houses that Im Chaem owns in O'Angre village on February 02, 2017 on the outskirts of Anlong Veng, Cambodia. Im Chaem's eldest daughter, Kang Rin, who is single, is a smiling and humble person who occasionally used to cook for Brother Number 5 Tak Mok. She describes Ta Mok as friendly but very strict, especially with those who were deemed to have behaved badly. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

O'ANGRE VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 03: 37 years-old Sdoeng Vong opens a blue net used to dry cassava in front of her house in the village of O'Angre on February 03, 2017 on the outskirts of Anlong Veng, Cambodia. In rural villages such as O'Angre, cassava has been identified as a prioritized cash crop. Although cassava is Cambodia's second-largest agricultural export crop by tonnage, amounting to nearly 13 million tons a year, the cassava industry has struggled in recent years and farmers in rural areas such as Anlong Veng district have been greatly impacted. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

O'ANGRE VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 03: Children run to school on a dusty road that crosses the village of O'Angre on February 03, 2017 on the outskirts of Anlong Veng, Cambodia. The village of O'Angre is situated only a few kilometers away from Anlong Veng, the last Khmer Rouge stronghold in Cambodia. Its villagers live mainly from farming rice and cassava. Traditional Khmer wooden houses line both sides of the dusty road that crosses the village and that leads to one of the two houses where Im Cheam lives. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

O'ANGRE VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 02: 43-year-old Kang Rin, Im Chaem's daughter, sits on a wooden bed in one of the two houses that Im Chaem owns in O'Angre village on February 02, 2017 on the outskirts of Anlong Veng, Cambodia. Kang Rin, who is single, is the eldest daughter of Im Chaem. She is a strong defender of the innocence of her mother: as she explains, "my mother can not even kill a fly, how is she going kill all these people." Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

O'ANGRE VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 02: 56-year-old Keo Lehuot sits in a wooden house that he is helping to build for one of his sons in O'Angre Village on February 02, 2017 on the outskirts of Anlong Veng, Cambodia. Lehuot tries to make a normal living, harvesting rice and not creating problems in the community; but this former Khmer Rouge soldier is afraid to speak, as people have disappeared from his village not a long time ago. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

O'ANGRE VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 02: Im Chaem's husband, Nob Nhen (78), sits on a wooden bed underneath their house while a radio is seen hanging on a wooden column in In Chaem's house in O'Angre Village on February 02, 2017 on the outskirts of Anlong Veng, Cambodia. Nob Nhen was one of the sector committee leaders in Serey Sophoan when Im Cheam was a secretary (chief) of Preah Neth Preah District, where thousands of people were held in slavery and subjected to hard labor, hunger, malnutrition, and executions. Nowadays, Im Chaem spends her mornings in her house listening to Buddhist Radio Stations from an old radio hanging from one of the wooden pillars of her house. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

O'ANGRE VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 03: Im Chaem (76) collects manure, to be used a fertilizer, from the several cows she owns on the grounds of her house in O'Angre village on February 03, 2017 on the outskirts of Anlong Veng, Cambodia. These days, Im Chaem lives in an isolated house at the end of a dusty road that crosses O'Angre village, only a few kilometers away from Anlong Veng, the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. She spends her days listening to an old radio and farming. She grows different kinds of vegetables, such as melons, cassava, and cucumbers growing in the fields that surround her home. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

O'ANGRE VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 03: Im Chaem (76) stands after dropping manure as fertilizer over cucumber plants that she grows behind her home in O'Angre village on February 03, 2017 on the outskirts of Anlong Veng, Cambodia. These days, Im Chaem lives in an isolated house at the end of a dusty road that crosses O'Angre village, only a few kilometers away from Anlong Veng, the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. She spends her days listening to an old radio and farming. She grows different kinds of vegetables, such as melons, cassava, and cucumbers in the fields that surround her home. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

CHOEUNG PHNOM VILLAGE, CAMBODI... Havana for The New York Times

CHOEUNG PHNOM VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 03: Incense sticks are left in front of Pol Pot's cremation site on February 03, 2017 in Choeung Phnom Village, Cambodia. In April 1998, Pol Pot, also known as Brother Number 1, died of a supposed heart attack. His body was cremated in a pile of tires and the mattress on which he died. His ashes were scattered in three places in Cambodia: the Tonle Sap lake; in the eastern part of Cambodia where Pol Pot started his revolution; and in this place in the Dangrek mountains where he died. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

CHOEUNG PHNOM VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 03: A luxury casino is seen in front of the sign indicating the cremation site of the former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot together with a sign about child protection on February 03, 2017 in Choeung Phnom Village, Cambodia. Choeung Phnom is just a few kilometers away from the Thai border and casinos are being built to attract tourism to an area where the new Cambodia lives with the remains of one of the most brutal regimes in the history of humanity. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

ANLONG VENG, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 03: Visitors read texts written on photographs that are displayed inside Ta Mok's house on February 02, 2017 in Anlong Veng. Cambodia. Khmer Rouge Commander Ta Mok, also known as Brother Number 5 or The Butcher, controlled the northern part of the last Khmer Rouge stronghold from his base in Anlong Veng, leading the Khmer Rouge during its final holdout. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

ANLONG VENG, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 02: Moto riders circle the roundabout at the entrance to Anlong Veng where a statue built by Hun Sen representing peace and the integration of the province is illuminated during the first hours of the nightfall on February 02, 2017 in Anlong Veng, Cambodia. Anlong Veng was the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge until 1998 when the remnants of the Khmer Rouge agreed to be integrated into the Cambodian state. This mass defection was a result of political concessions and compromises by the Cambodian Government, who gave citizenship status to the leaders and cadres in exchange for defecting. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

CHA LEUR VILLAGE, CAMBODIA &am... Havana for The New York Times

CHA LEUR VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 04: 55-year-old Phon Loeun stands looking at one of the canals that workers like him built during the Khmer Rouge regime on February 04, 2017 in Cha Leaur Village, Cambodia. Loeun was 14 when the canals were being built; he worked during the years of the Khmer Rouge regime digging these canals while others were building the Spean Sreng Dam only a few kilometers away. Loeun was required to dig three cubic meters per day, using only basic tools and only receiving porridge to eat. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

SPEAN SRENG, CAMBODIA &nda... Havana for The New York Times

SPEAN SRENG, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 04: A young boy throws a fishing net into the water near the remains of the Spean Sreng Dam built by the Khmer Rouge in 1977 on February 04, 2017 in Banteay Meanchey province, Cambodia. Im Chaem was the secretary (chief) of this district where she is said to have overseen the worksite of the Spean Sreng Dam. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

SPEAN SRENG, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 04: Children run over the remains of the Spean Sreng Dam built by the Khmer Rouge in 1977 on February 04, 2017 in Banteay Meanchey province, Cambodia. Im Chaem was the secretary (chief) of this district where she is said to have overseen the worksite of the Spean Sreng Dam. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

CHA LEUR VILLAGE, CAMBODIA – FEBRUARY 04: A water canal built by the Khmer Rouge is seen along the dusty road that links the national road to the Thai border with Spean Sreng Dam on February 04, 2017 in Cha Leaur Village, Cambodia. It is estimated that some ten thousand people worked on the construction of these canals, under the command of Im Cheam who, at the time, was the secretary (chief) of the district. Each worker was required to dig three cubic meters per day, with only basic tools and porridge for food. The canals were intended to increase rice output, which was very low at the time in the district. Photo: © Omar Havana for The New York Times

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Public Project

The Bucolic Life of a Cambodian Grandmother Accused of Mass Killings

Copyright Omar Havana 2025

Date of Work Feb 2017 - Feb 2017

Updated May 2020

Location Anlong Veng, cambodia

Topics Anlong Veng, Asia, Asia Photographer, Cambodia, Civil Rights, Crime, Documentary, Editorial, Essays, Europe Photographer, Genocide, Human Rights, Im Chaen, Khmer Rouge, Lifestyle, Media, News, Oddar Meanchey Province, Paris Photographer, Photography, Photojournalism, Politics, Prison, Southeast Asia, The New York Times, War

In this dusty mountain hamlet on the Thai border, she is known as Grandma Chaem.

The tiny 74-year-old lives peacefully in a snug, stilted house surrounded by papaya, lime, and custard-apple trees. Her children and grandchildren live nearby. She grows cucumbers and donates to her local pagoda, chews betel leaf and tends her cows.

But Im Chaem, the woman enjoying this apparently idyllic retirement, is accused of overseeing the killing of tens of thousands of people as a Khmer Rouge official in northwestern Cambodia in 1977 and 1978. In 2015, a United Nations-backed tribunal charged her with crimes against humanity, including mass murder, extermination, and enslavement.

The tribunal’s investigating judges quietly dropped the charges, raising questions about whether they had yielded to pressure from the Cambodian government, which opposed the prosecution.

Photography: © Omar Havana for The New York Times. All Rights are Reserved

Intro by Julia Wallace for The New York Times

This story was done while on assignment for The New York Times

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