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Published: November 28th 2006
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The Killing Feilds Memorial
8000 skulls are within this building Headed to Phnom Penh to meet Chris, Gaz and Julia in Phnom Pehn, unfortunately my hotmail account thought Chris's email he sent me telling me where he was staying was a spam mail so it was plonked in my junk email folder. I was literally mobbed as I got off the bus, the worst mobbing I've had on my travels. I had to stay in a crazy guesthouse on the first night (I've never had to go across a catwalk to get to my room before) but I did find a great little bar called the drunken frog to chill in that night with a guy called Justin and a canadian called Shaun, who were both really nice guys. We spent every night there from then onwards!
Following day hooked up with Chris and Gaz, unfortunately Julia has caught Malaria and was in hospital which was a bit crazy, she didn't look well when I saw here but its been caught early so it shouldn't be a problem. Gave her a hug, she'll be ok.
Once Jade, Collette and Jared joined us (Alice appears to have gone AWOL!) we had a few drinks that night with the plan of going to
the Killing Fields and S21 the following day.
When the Communist Khmer Rouge forces marched into Phnom Penh to take control of Cambodia on the April 17, 1975, the Cambodian people believed that this would be the end of the war which had spilled over from Vietnam and there would be peace. Unfortunately this was not the case as the Khmer Rouge, led by Leader Pol Pot began the systematic process of turning the country in a communist state, moving the entire population of Phnom Pehn into the countryside to work as peasants of the land. Pol Pot then ordered that anyone deemed to be an intellectual, Doctor, Teacher, Writer or educated person were to be executed. Along with their families. By 1978, when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and reached Phnom Penh, it is believed that between 1 to 3 million people had been killed in the genocide. Its a pretty horrific statistic.
We went out to Choeung Ek or the Killing Fields and I can say without a shadow of a doubt its the hardest thing I have ever seen. In the middle of the fields is a large Stupa which has about 8000 skulls lined up on glass
shelves. These are just the skulls that have been unearthed from graves that have been dug up. Theres believed to be a further 43 graves which are untouched. The whole day made me feel sick, again I wretched, the evil inflicted on these people I cannot even imagine to comprehend. Our guide lost both his parents to the Khmer Rouge. No farmers were killed. Just people who were deemed to be a threat. Theres clothes coming out of the ground and quite a few graves which list the horrors, people were shot, beheaded, Buried alive as families. Words can't describe how bad it was, I felt terrible.
From there we went to the equally bad Security Prison 21, which is now the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. From 1975 to 1979 at least 20,000 people came through this converted school. Here people suspected of anti-communist behaviour were interrogated and subjected to horrific torture then either killed on site or sent to the killing fields.
There's pictures on the walls of the thousands of people that came through the gates and its strikes you how ordinary they all are, all ages, men and women, there's no pattern to the killing. The pictures
of the 14 victims found in the individual cells by the vietnamese was too much for me, I managed 4 and then left it, I couldn't manage the rooms with the blood stains either and sat most of the day out. I just can't believe or understand how some people can inflict such pain and suffering with such hatred on their fellow man. I probably never will.
The Cambodian people I have spoke to are some of the most charming people I have met on my travels. This is a poor, poor country but they will always smile at you, always try and help you if they can, with the very limited english they have and like every other country I have passed through, I never feel threatened or unsafe. Their past has one of the worst human attrocities of the 20th century, which was condemmed by the international community but little else (When Vietnam invaded in 1978 and disposed of the Khmer Rouge back into the countryside, both the US and Britain refused to recognize the new government, deciding to give the Khmer Rouge money, guns, food to fight the Vietnamese forces and offered them the Cambodian seat on
the UN, truely shocking) yet through all of this the people still smile and are always so pleased to see you. I won't ever forget that or indeed how lucky I am sometimes.
After a pretty hard day, all of us went for a drink and had a go at the quiz on at the lazy Geko bar. I wasn't feeling too hopeful on this as the last quiz we entered went a bit pear shaped (Team name: On the Street, Score 26, Position: Last) but this time the not so happy pizza posse came top and won $41! We gave half to the orphanage and had some drinks with the rest. Then Julia won the raffle, picking out her own ticket and we had a free bottle of Jim Bean. Which was then drunk. Much messiness ensued.
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