By Samantha Day • Published: 21 Feb 2020 • 23:24
Two Cambodian sisters – aged 98 and 101 – have been reunited for the first time in 47 years after each thinking the other had died during the Khmer Rouge’s 1970s reign of terror.
The two sisters last saw each other in 1973, two years before the Pol Pot-led communists took control of Cambodia.
Many families were broken up during this period, with children often removed from their parents as the regime sought to exert absolute control over the country.
Around two million people are thought to have died under Khmer Rouge rule.
After almost half a century, Bun Sen was reunited with her big sister Bun Chea and younger brother last week.
“I left my village a long time ago and never went back. I always thought my sisters and brothers had died,” Bun Sen said.
“To be able to hold my older sister means so much. And the first time my younger brother touched my hand, I started crying.”
Now the sisters are making up for lost time. This week they went on a tour of the capital together.
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