After arriving in Phnom Penh, we met up with our fab friends, Andy & Leanne, to visit the sites of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot (1975 - 1979). In brief, the Khmer Rouge believed in a strict form of agrarian socialism in order to build a strong Kampuchea (their name for Cambodia). Pol Pot ordered that all those associated with the old govenment or society be captured, tortured and executed. On April 17th 1975 all major cities were evacuated by the Khmer Rouge under the pretence that the USA were about to bomb them and that they would be able to return after 3 days. They lied. In fact, under the regime, those that were not executed were made to live in labour camps and subjected to hard labour, starvation and indoctrination through extreme propaganda. Anyone rumoured to be educated or linked in any way to the old way of life or to the western world was captured. Under Khmer Rouge rule all links with western culture were banned. No money, no religion, no education, no wealth, no rights.
They would then be taken to a place like Tuol Sleng (otherwise known as S-21). This old school was used to hold, torture and finally sentance to death over 17,000 people durng the 4 years of Khmer Rouge rule.
The Khmer Rouge uniform.
Men and women were held in cramped and dirty conditions.
Like these tiny cells.
Smaller then most dog kennels, prisioners would also be shackled to make movement and escape impossible.
Daily the prisioners would be tortured using the most barbaric methods to get them to sign confessions or give names of "anti-revolutionaries", even though most had no idea what they were confessing to.
This harrowing place is very much left as it was found following the fall of the KR in 1979. The torture tools are still evident as are the blood stained floors and walls. Every prisoner was photographed during their stay for records. These faces now look out at you from the past and provide a very chilling image of what happened and that it happened during our life times.
Once they were no longer required, they would be transported to a place outside the city, like Choeung Ek; 'The Killing Fields'. Here they arrived blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs. Told that they were just waiting to be transported on somewhere else, the imprisoned were lead out to the fields nearby. Still tied and blindfolded they were asked to kneel. So not to cause hysteria or to alert residents nearby, loud music was played to mask the cries. Guns were considered to loud as a method of execution and probably too expensive. Most were hit with impliments, such as large hammers, or had their throat cut by sharp palm leaves. After being thrown into the pit they knelt infront of, those that were not quite dead were finally extinguished by the chemicals used to stop the area smelling as the bodies decomposed. They think around 20,000 were killed here and as a tribute and memorial 8,000 skulls of those exumed are held in this tower as a reminder to us all.
How can man be so cruel?
The area had still not been fully exumed due to the shear volume of bodies buried. As rain water has erroded the soil, new bones and clothes have constantly been unearthed.
It is hard to believe that this green field was the location of one of the most horrifc and sick actions of man. It is estimated that over the 4 years, nearly 2 million people were killed or died of starvation. Just over 1/4 of their population. The Khmer Rouge reign finally came to an end in 1979 due to invasion by Vietnam. The Khmer Rouge army were forced into the wilderness, Pol Pot fled with them, where he lived until his death in 1998. Justice for the Cambodian people was never truely realised as Pol Pot never had to answer for his crimes. The war crimes tribunal continues for other Khmer Rouge leaders today.
After that we needed a night out! We hit the main street of Phnom Pehn for some 50 cent 'Angkor Beer', or in my case some $3 wine.
The crew.
Bored with selling bracelets the girls decided I could do with a make over.
My improved look.
The night turned into a late one and ended in an empty pool bar where Aaron tried his best to beat the Khmer girls.
Cambodia had been one of my favorite places. Once you can get your head around the poverty and scars induced by the the horrors of their recent past, it is a beautiful, friendly and relaxing place, full of a nation determind to re-built itself.
