Good times at S21 and the Killing Fields

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Okay, I am having a much better day today. Mostly because I have studiously avoided the masses and kept to myself as much as possible. My sanity depended on it. After my blog yesterday I ran into a French couple that I had met in Siem Reap, and felt better when they expressed the same feelings I had about the poverty and beggers here. I am not the only one suffering from travellers guilt.

Although it was a good day, it was far from happy this morning, as I visited the S-21 museum and the Killing Feilds today. The barbarity and cruelness of what happened there are inhuman, and I cannot imagine going through the pain, suffering, fear and torture that these people did.

Tuol Sleng Museum

Tuol Sleng Museum was formerly a Cambodian high school. In 1975 it was taken over by Pol Pot and his regime (by this time it would have been completely deserted, as every citizen of every major city was forced to the villages for back breaking hard labour to serve the regime.) to become S21 or Security Prison 21. It became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country, and between the years 1975 and 1978 more than 17,000 people were held here and eventually taken to the extermination camp Choeung Ek (the Killing Fields) to be terminated. Before they were transferred though, they were brutally tortured, beaten, and starved, all for whatever information the regime could get from the victims. By the end of the regime, the Khemr Rouge were turning on themselves, and many soldiers and prison workers fell victim to the brutality the prison held. Children as young as 6 and 7 years old were taken here. Whole families were imprisoned, the father being seperated from the mother, who was then seperated from the children. The infants and children were the first to die, usually right there at the prison. The rest were held there for 2-4 months, except for those who held important political rankings. They were usually held and tortured for about 6 months before being sent off to be killed. As the Vietnemese were closing in on Phnom Penh the regime tortured to death 14 prisoners, each of which were foun in their cells by the liberation army shortly thereafter. Pictures of their gruesome deaths are displayed on the walls of the cells that they were interred in, and special grave markers are displayed in the courtyard of the former school. Of the hundreds of thousands of prisoners that went through S21, only 7 survivors remained, all of which used their skills (painting, sculpting, photgraphy etc) to stay alive. Which is ironic, considering this was one of the classes that Pol Pot so viciously tried to eradicate from the land. Throughout the museum are hundreds and hundreds of pictures of the victims. Some are 'normal' mugshot like photos. Others are horrible pictures of vicitims after they had been tortured to death. The regime kept explicit records of who, when, and how each person came to the camp, what happened to them while in the prison, and when they died. In all a decidedly depressing place to visit, but one that had to be done. "Lest we forget".

These are the regulations that each prisoner was given when first arrived at the prison:

1. You must answer accordingly to my questions. Do not turn them away.
2. Do not try to hide the facts by making pretexts for this and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Do not be a fool for you are a chap who dares to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Do not tell me either about your immoralities or 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. Do not make pretexts about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your jaw of traitor.
9. If you do not follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
10. If you disobey any point of my recularions you shall get either then lashes or five shocks or electric discharge.

They were kept under such tight guard that they could not even change positions at night without permission first. As much as you can change your position while shackled by the hands and sandwiched in with 50-70 other prisoners. Such exreme acts of torture that I would never even be able to dream them up. Monsters they were.

Keep in mind that sometimes they were intorrogeting children and farmers and simple peasants for 'information'. There were also many foreigners who were held there from Vietnam (the regime would kidnap the Vietnamese from their villages and then bring them here to be tortured for information), India, Australia, United States, Laos, Thailand, Pakistanan, Britian, New Zealand, and Canada. All tortured and killed for the regime. It was a gut wrenching ordeal just seeing the museum.

Choeung Ek: The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields were relatively minor compared to the museum, but ghastly in it's own right. Located about 16km south of the city and the museum, it's where truck loads of victims were brought from all over the country to be slaughtered into mass graves. There is a monument when you first walk into the area that is ten stories high with all the skulls that had been found there to date, all organized into sex and age. Thousands of skulls, all smashed and fractured, as the Angkor were too cheap to use bullets. Instead they were hit in the back of the head using a large bamboo pole, and then their throats were slit. Most of the bodies were found without clothes or heads. Babies were either thrown into the air then used as target for the bayonets or they were held by the feet then beaten against a tree until they stopped crying. Thousands and thousands of bodies were found here.

Although the actual number of people that were killed is contested, the general consensus is between 1.3 and 1.8 million. This includes the general public who were forced to work between 14 and 16 hours aday doing backbreaking work in the feilds and gardens with only a handful of rice a day to sustain them. They died of disease, starvation, and dysentry and were buried by family, or if no family were left, were thrown in smaller mass graves in the villages.

Damn...I again just lost about a quarter of what I just wrote. The internet went down because, get this...someone was trying to use the phone in the back room. Haha. I am not in Kansas anymore.

After the morning of sobrietry I needed some serious relaxing. I found an amazing little restaraunt and pub last night, so returned there today for some dining and drinking. Oh my god the BEST pizza since I have left Canada. I think I will eat the rest of my meals there. The staff were great and very friendly. The waitress goes to school part time to be an accountant and works full time at the restaraunt. She was doing her school work when I walked in this afternoon. Her boyfriend owns the place, and because I am so cool makes my drinks doubles. SCORE! $2 for a double White Russian. I had three of them 😊

The absolute best part about this afternoon was I finally found the name and performer of the "Happy Song" that I had heard so much in Thailand, and that makes me so happy. Turns out it's about a man who's girlfriend dumps him, and when he tries to call there's no answer. Thus the name of the song. "No Answer" It was kind of an Abbot and Costello who's on first skit when I asked what the name of the song was. I would ask the name of the song and the bartender replied 'no answer'. I said 'Oh, you don't know?' He said 'Yes, no answer' It took me a few minutes to get it. Keep in mind I had had three doubles. (Damn they were good. I might go back and have another after this). Even better? Their friend across the alley runs a music shop, and for a whopping 75 cents made me a copy of the CD. Now I really am happy, and I'm not even listening to the song!

I got to talking with the music guy. Turns out he also drives a bus from here to Vietnam, as well as Siem Reap. The more I talked with him the more interesting it got, as apparently he quite often drinks alot before and during a trip. Great, that makes me feel really fucking safe. Especially considering I just took that ride yesterday. Also, his driver's license is good until 2043. Forty years!!! He can drink his liver away while escorting unsuspecting tourists back and forth until his dying days. Good god, what am I doing here?

Loving it, that's what.

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Comments

[sista]

yer funny
I'm glad to see you are having a better day. I was thinking about you today and our internet was down so i couldn't even see if there was another blog! Piss off. so now i'm at work wasting my bosses money while i sit on the internet. Life's grand isn't it?! i'm looking forward to having a couple of rum and egg nogs with you when you get back here to good ol' Canada! mmm mmm.