Old Man In 70s Working Hard (Khmer Rouge Survivor ? )

As I was leaving Poipet town my last day in Cambodia I came across an old man, old, heavily wrinkled, a bit frail but still hard at work. The man was working at a construction site, there was a foundation for some buildings nearby. He had a hoe/pick type tool with a long wooden handle and was digging, pulling and arranging the hard dirt along the edge of that foundation.

I took some far off shots then moved in and did some closer shots, when I was quite close I asked him his age and he told me, he said he was over 70 (not sure if he knew his actual age, birthday, maybe not).

When I saw him working with that hoe/pick it reminded me of Dith Pran's work in the movie "The Killing Fields". This man being over 70 had lived through that terrible time in Cambodian history, he could have done similar work, with a similar tool during the time of the Khmer Rouge when he would have been about my age or a bit younger (40s). What experiences had he endured, what hardships? As I watched him work I wondered  how many times and for how many hours he had swung that tool with heavily armed, black dressed Khmer Rouge soldiers nearby watching for weakness. Or had he been a Khmer Rouge himself? Had he executed men, women and children for the cause of the revolution because Anka (the Khmer Rouge term for the party/leadership) had told him to do so.