Phnom Penh - Khmer Cruelty

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WARNING THIS BLOG ENTRY CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF CRUELTY BY THE KHMER ROUGE AND MAY UPSET YOUNG OR SENSITIVE READERS.

We arrived after dark in Phnom Penh and initial impressions were different to what we expected, with post hotels and buildings dotted about, good conditioned roads with crossing and a hive of excited activity which we were later to discover the reason. We checked in out FREE guesthouse given away as an offer for the Mekong trip from Hoi Chi Minh. The "Okay" guesthouse was for the most part "Okay" but annoying tak tak touts and guides hassle you in the restaurant until you have been on at least two of the tours on offer. Also they make lots of extra money on everything from bus tickets to Visas.... they know people have little time to go and seek cheaper alternatives or worse still simply handed over cash without questioning (this is something that became a real problem for us during out travels and fuelled the price explosions we would encounter for the next few weeks or so).

We headed out into the central palace area to find hundreds of locals gathered at what appear to be some sort of concert. It turns out that they were in fact celebrating the anniversary of the end of the Khmer Rouge Killings - 7th January - one of the most important dates for all Cambodians. We stayed and joined in with the dancing and party like atmosphere that surrounded us. The concert was like a history lesson explaining to all the audience the events that happened during the terrible Khmer Rouge period. However through a friendly Cambodian (who was tryinging his best to explain in English what was being said) we realised that parts of the documented history were being glossed over like the fact that their current Prime Minister (of all people) was one of the Khmer Rouge soliders during the 70s and helped kill innocent people. In fact the concert was singing his praises for being a great leader.... We got the feeling that not many Cambodians knew ALL the REAL history and FACTS. It was also at this concern we met some fellow travellers from the Mekong trip; "Michael and Kirsten from Germany".

Next day we joined up again with Michael and Kirsten to take a trip to the Tuol Sleng Museum and later the Killing Fields. At this point, although we knew (from what we had read) about the dark history of the KR rule, nothing could prepare us for the deeply harrowing and emotionally draining day about to come. We set off with our Tuk Tuk guide, who was from the Okay guesthouse - TIP: Don't use hotel touting tuk tuk drivers, find one a few blocks away to get a cheaper price (i.e. <$12 for the whole day for 4 people). We arrived outside the Tuol Sleng Museum fully expecting out guide to join us. At this point we realised that they use the work "guide" to make you think they will show you around - basically "not a chance". They are ALL drivers and will NOT guide you anywhere because each tourist place has their own guides for that. We entered the museum (guideless) and paid the ever increasing entrance fee. The museum was the actual torture prison where thousands of innocent Cambodians that were professionals (teachers, doctors etc) or had links with Vietnam or were families of the above. It is hard to believe that not only men and women but young children were tortured and murdered too. We somberly walked from building to building reading the detailed records, documentation, commentary and viewing the explicit pictures of the inhumanity that rained down between 1975 and 1979 on the Cambodian people. The Khmer Rouge, led by a crazed man called Pol Pot (a name that sends shivers down the spine of millions of people around the world), promising the people a better future with Maoist ideals but executed with such distortion, and like so many tyrannical had people doing his evil bidding through fear of their own lives. The pictures of torture and imprisonment were disturbing enough but there were even pictures of the dead victim's bodies afterwards recorded by the KR just like the Nazis did in Europe. The torture prison used to be a school with a playground still visible at the centre, which made the whole thing seem even more evil that a place for educating children for a future development was now used as a "correctional" facility for educating those that Pol Pot and his army deemed "a threat" to the new regime. The museum has made no attempt to clean the blood stained floors and iron bed frames that held the prisoners during torture - this is a deliberate decision so that all who come (especially Cambodians) will see the horror and ensure a repeat of this is never allowed to happen again.

One of the most revealing exhibitions on display was from a Swedish group who were given the only western access during the 70s. It clearly shows how the western world was fooled into believing only good was happening under the KR regime with photos taken by the Swedish group of children in schools, happy villages and working people. All of this was in fact "staged" for the Swedish visitors and their every move monitored and carefully orchestrated. The exhibit features not only the original photos taken in 1976 but the Swedish group leader's thoughts at the time and his thoughts now knowing the terrible truth that wasn't discovered until long after the KR regime was over thrown by the Vietnamese in 1979. Pol Pot used the photos taken by the Swedish group as propaganda to the western world and neighbouring countries that Cambodian was a happy and thriving country under the KR rule and for this reason the Swedish leader gave a heart felt apology to all Cambodians that suffered then and still emotionally today that they didn't see through the lies and deception because they wanted to believe all was OK. There is a film that runs at 10am and 3pm that tells the story with English subtitles.

After leaving the museum we headed 14km southwest of the killing fields of Choeung Ek. his is one of hundreds of sites across Cambodia where mass graves contain thousands of dead bodies, a place where unimaginable cruelty and execution of men, women and children took place. The Killing Fields site now seemed quiet and strangely tranquil, but walking through the graves where bones and clothing are still scattered will leave harrowing memories with us for a lifetime. There is a huge stupa containing over 8000 skulls - a permanent memorial to those who were murdered here. The only thing that brought some light to this dark place was the sound of school children playing nearby - a sound that signifys that there is a brighter future, we hope without fear and persecution. We paid out respects not only for the lost souls at this killing fields site but for the 2 million people who were slain across Cambodia. To think that this brutality happened 30 years ago whilst in the western world we celebrated released of Hollywood blockbuster movies such as Superman and Star Wars. The UK thought it had things tough with miners strikes and 3 day weeks but we still enjoyed our freedom and safety. Other parallels can be drawn today with such countries as Zimbabwe, where a tyrannical leader ; Mugabe, continues to this day to intimidate and spread fear across a once beautiful land, but still now very little help seems to be coming from the outside world... have we learnt nothing in all of our tragic and war centric histories.

We returned to out tuk tuk and hardly a word was spoken until we neared our next destination the Temple - Wat Phnom. The mood was greatly lifted by the sight of monkeys frolicking around the Temple grounds. The temple itself was set in the middle of an enormous roundabout which to be fair didn't exist back when the temple was built and certainly the thousands of Motos, tuk tuks and cars that endlessly circled weren't. As for the monkeys, well they've been here for hundreds of years and believed to be sacred to the temple - if the monkeys ever left then bad times would befall the city. This did make us wonder exactly how this squared up with the countless wars and the Khmer Rouge era that tore the city and country apart...anyway we paid the mandatory tourist charge of $1 to enter the base of the temple grounds and then resisted a further scam charge half way up! We ended the emotionally draining day by unwinding at the riverside area with lively places to eat and music playing - we could have been in any other city around the world. However from that day on we would never forget one of the worlds worst genocides in history.

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Photos

Prision Rules
Enforced by the Khmer Rouge

Torture Cell at Tuol Sleng Museum
Torture beyond imagination happened here.

Holding cells...
Scared innocent people waited to be tortured to death.

Thought provoking
Impossible to imagine the suffering that happened here.

Stupa...
....filled with 8000 skulls. Only a fraction of the 2 million that were murdered.

New Friends...
Kirsten and Michael

Children selling food...
... in the temple grounds.