There have been many moments in the past 9 months of travelling that I have been shocked to discover or learn about something that I had no clue had happened. The genocide that took place in Cambodia between 1975-1979 is one of the those things.
I am embarrassed to say that even as a 29 year old Religious Studies teacher I knew very little about the events that took place in this country before being a tourist here.
In Cambodia, a genocide was carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime led by Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979 in which one and a half to three million people were killed. The Khmer Rouge had planned to create a form of agrarian socialism. The Khmer Rouge policies of forced relocation of the population from urban centres, torture, mass executions, use of forced labor, and malnutrition led to the deaths of an estimated 25 percent of the total population. The genocide was ended following the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.
Nathan, Alison and I went to see the movie 'The Killing Fields' a few days before we visited to try and help us understand a little more about the events. I would recommend watching the movie if you never have.
I truly believe that a trip to Cambodia has to include a visit to S21 and the Killing fields in Phnom Penh to actually understand what the country has been through. The Cambodian government encourage tourists to visit both to be able to share with the world and make them aware of what can happen on your very doorstep.
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum in the capital of Cambodia that documents the Cambodian genocide. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. Tuol Sleng was only one of at least 150 execution centres in the country, and as many as 20,000 prisoners there were later killed.
When we approached the building I did not see a prison, to me I saw a school. Then I started to think about the structure of a school and actually how it could very easily be turned into a prison. As we stood in the school yard I noticed the former exercise bars that were used as methods of torture during 1975-1979. Spending 50 hours a week in a school building back home it was very eery to see a school transformed into a place of extreme horror.
We paid for a guide to take us around and tell us about what happened. As we entered each classroom she told us about the people who were kept inside. She told us about the living conditions, the torture and the rules of being inside S21.
1. You must answer accordingly to my question. Don’t turn them away.
2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Don’t be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Don’t make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.
9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.
Many of the classrooms were converted into tiny prison cells and torture chambers, and all windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent escapes.
As we entered the different rooms the thing that struck me the most was the eyes! Hundreds and thousands of eyes! Inside the classrooms the walls are covered in photos of the prisoners. Each prisoner that entered had his/her photo taken and now these line the walls. It is an intense, overwhelming feeling looking at all the innocent faces of people you know were once in the room you are standing in and that they should still be alive today!
The girl that took us around told us of her mother and how on the 17th April 1975 she had been ordered to leave Phnom Penh and start walking to the Cambodian countryside along with everyone else who lived in the city. The way the Khmer Rouge were able to evacuate a city so quickly was to inform everyone it was going to be bombed by the Americans and that they needed to leave as fast as possible and not to take much with them as they would be returning in a few days. Everyone had to leave the city by foot! Our guide told us that her mother returned to Phnom Penh 5 years later and went to the house that was hers but as it had taken her 3 months to walk back with her 3 younger siblings the house was already occupied by then. Her mother was the oldest survivor of her family everyone else had been killed by the Khmer Rouge so now she had 3 young siblings to look after at aged 17 and no home.
When the liberation army arrived at S21 there was 7 survivors, some of which were children who had hidden in a pile of clothing. One of the survivors Chum Mey has written a book which he sells in the museum grounds and has spent his life travelling, taking part in interviews and being present at the museum to tell others of the horrors that happened within his own country, caused by his own people to make others aware so that it does not happen again. Nathan and I purchased a copy of his book and are happy to pass it on if anyone reading this is interested please ask me.
Also I haven't detailed all the torture and the hundreds of skulls still at S21 if you want to find out more please have a look online there is a lot of detail about what happened there.
I have just read over what I have written about S21 and realised I refer to the rooms as classrooms not as prison cells, I don't know why I wrote it like that but maybe it has I do with my own brain not being able to accept what humans are actually capable of!
From S21 we got a tuktuk to The Killing Fields ($20 round trip, he waits for you and drops you back at your hotel). I feel I should mention that Choeung Ek is only one of hundreds of killing fields all over Cambodia.
Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. Today bones are still scattered around the fields and are collected by the security guards on a weekly/monthly basis.
Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa. The stupa has acrylic glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered or smashed in.
One of the most difficult things for me personally was looking at the tree where the soldiers would smash babies against to kill them before throwing them into a pit. I actually don't want to write anything else about it on here so again if you would like to know more there is information online.
As you enter Choeung Ek you receive a headset and spend the next 90 minutes walking around the site hearing information about what you are looking at as well as real accounts from people about what happened there. The fact that everyone is walking around with headsets on means that no one is talking. I took my headset off for a minute and stood alone looking across the field there was silence! So much silence it was so peaceful, there were butterflies everywhere! This place of horror and death has been made into a place of reflection and the beauty is emotional. I am not sure if that makes sense but I know it will make sense to anyone reading this who has visited.