Comrade Sao

‘Thursday 17 April 1975 is the day that I will never forget until the day I die. That was the day the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh and overthrew the government of General Lon Nol and his Republican Party…’Thus begins Firos Iseu’s gripping memoir of his experiences during the Khmer Rouge’s brutal regime in Cambodia between April 1975 and January 1979. At the tender age of 12, Iseu – whose ‘revolutionary name’, Comrade Sao, provides the book with its title – faced the horrors of the regime’s first wave of killings, which at a stroke deprived him of his parents and elder siblings. Bearing a diverse heritage of Indian, Laotian, and Vietnamese roots, he was branded a ‘17 April’ or ‘new’ person, marking him as an outsider and second-class citizen.Comrade Sao stands as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, showcasing the author’s remarkable courage and resourcefulness in the face of terrifying adversity. This harrowing, unflinching and above all honest narrative sheds a necessary light on one of the darkest chapters of humanity of the past 50 years.

Firos Iseu was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, during the Vietnam War and now lives in Sydney, Australia.

Comrade Sau is the true story of Firos’ childhood between the ages of 12 and 15. He was studying in Grade 5 in primary school and was stopped when the Khmer Rouge took over the government in 1975. When the Khmer Rouge were finally toppled in January 1979, Firos fled to Thailand and then Malaysia as a refugee. He spent almost four years in refugee camps in these countries before he was finally resettled in Australia in January 1983.

He only resumed his studies in Sydney when he was 25 years of age, while taking care of his new-born daughter (three more were to follow). He then completed his degree and graduate diploma at Macquarie University.

Firos has read dozens of books about life under the Khmer Rouge. He believes his story stands out because he lived in so many provinces, orphanages and prisons and, as a result, saw and experienced more than most.

He never intended to write this book and tried to forget about his past. However, he changed his mind when he was almost 60 years old because he had not told his daughters much about his past when they were growing up and he wanted to leave a legacy behind.