The Price We Paid

About the Book

April 17, 1975-the Communist Khmer Rouge Regime seized power and forced Cambodians of all ages into slavery, turning their lives upside down. This resulted in the death of more than 1.5 million Cambodians out of roughly 8 million population due to forced labor, starvation, and execution.

Author Vatey Seng was only thirteen years old when the Khmer Rouge took control. The Price We Paid is her vivid and haunting memoir of the atrocities of the regime. Vatey recounts everything from the initial occupation through the indoctrination and application of the Khmer Rouge's ways of life. Every aspect of her family's life was impacted as the new government achieved its goals through child labor, slavery, and genocide. Vatey's memories provide a glimpse into what the people of Cambodia endured during this dark regime-a regime that totally devastated her beloved country. The Price We Paid also follows the aftermath of the regime. Vatey and her family fled the country and stayed in refugee camps in Thailand, the processing center in the Philippines, and then immigrated to America in 1982.

Twenty-five years later, she has gathered the courage and strength to finally tell her story-a story shared by countless Cambodian survivors who still bear the psychological scars of their traumatic experiences. This is the price they paid for the Khmer Rouge revolution.

About the Author

Vatey Seng, a mother of three children, lives in northern California, where she works as an accounting supervisor with the Alameda County Department of Environmental Health.