Monday 11th October
Today I experienced the darker side of Phnom Penh and Cambodia’s history at the the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the Tuol Sleng Prison. It was a harrowing experience and as I walked back into central Phnom Penh my thoughts were completely occupied by what I had seen and the atrocities that had been committed against the Cambodian people.
From 1975 to 1979, 1.7 million people (21% of the country’s population) lost their lives in the Cambodian genocide, one of the worst human tragedies of the last century. About 15 km east of Phnom Penh lies what was originally a Chinese graveyard which was transformed into a massacre site and mass grave for the victims of the brutal extremist Khmer Rouge regime.
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| Mass graves at The Killing Fields |
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| Skulls preserved in the Buddhist monument |
The Communist Party of Kampuchea captured Phnom Penh on April 17th 1975 after the collapse of the previous government. At first their arrival was met with jubilation as it signaled an end to the turmoil Cambodia had suffered in recent years with the struggle for independence from the French. However, feelings soon changed as heavy militia flooded the capital and the other major cities in Cambodia. They forced a mass exodus from the cities out to the rural areas and forced people to work on the land to increase food production. Next they abolished all money, religion, schooling, free markets and anything relating to the traditional Khmer culture. Their vision was to transform Cambodia into a rural, classless society. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Cham and Chinese ethnic minorities were execucted along with academics, intellectuals, city residents and those in positions of power who were not considered ‘pure’. No one was safe from the brutal regime; those who were not executed suffered from famine and over-working in the Kampuchea’s quest for a completely independent, self reliant county.
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| The momument at the Killing Fields |
The Kampuchea, led by Pol Pot, first tortured their victims at Tuol Sleng prison, before taking them to the Killing Fields to be massacred. Mass graves were dug and more than 17,000 victims were buried there. As I walked round the peaceful orchard it was hard to imagine the horror that occurred here but the skulls of the victims, housed in a glass Buddhist memorial structure in the centre of the fields bought it home. Pieces of clothing and bone fragments have also been preserved and stored in sacred monuments to remember and to honour those who died. Buddhists believe that if you have not had a proper burial, your ghost will not be free and your soul will never rest therefore the monuments at Cheung Ek were constructed to offer peace and some comfort to the families of the victims.
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| Photographs of victims of Tuol Sleng |
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| Cells at Tuol Sleng prison |
After visiting the Killing Fields, I then went to the old prison of Tuong Sleng which has been converted into a War Crimes museum just outside the centre of Phnom Penh. It is an extremely eerie place; visitors are able to walk around the prison as it would have been and all the cells are still in tact, containing the metal beds and torture instruments used on the victims. Ironically, the prison was originally a school before the Khmer Rouge transformed it. Pictures of the victims as they entered the prison, and as they left line the walls along with facts and figures about the gruesome regime. Between 17000 and 20000 prisoners were detained there, among them only three survived.
Tuong Sleng and the Killing Fields are among the most visited sights in Phnom Penh. Although visiting them was extremely hard and emotionally draining I think it is really important for travellers to be aware of the atrocities that have occured in Cambodia’s history. Cambodia did not find peace until 1998 when Pol Pot died and the civil war in Cambodia finally ceased. Hopefully now there is a brighter future on the horizon and these serve as a brutal reminder of the tragedies that have occured but also lessons for the future leaders.
For more information on the Khmer Rouge regime and the ongoing war crimes tribunal, the following websites are great resources:
http://www.yale.edu/cgp/
http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/
