Back in Phnom Penh

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I didn't intend to add another entry before my trip to the temples at Angkor Wat but I visited the Tuol Sleng Museum in Phnom Penh this morning, which serves as a testament to the horrendous crimes of the Khmer Rouge. In the 1950/60/70's this was a school, which was taken over by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and then became a detention and torture centre for some of the most barbaric crimes in Cambodia's history. Many of the tortured men, women, children and infants were then taken to the Killing Fields extermination camp.

This was one of the most eery and haunting places that I think I have ever visited and I feel sure will leave a lasting impression on me. I think it is probably the sheer ordinariness of the place that makes it feel like this - a dull grey concrete building in the middle of an urban setting, much of which has been left just as it was all those years ago. Two of the blocks still contain the cells, some divided with bricks or wood and some of the old rusty beds, torture instruments and the victims' clothing. Some of the buildings have also been given over to an exhibition of portraits of the prisoners, pictures showing them being tortured and examples of forced confessions from various inmates. What was particularly poignant to read was that many Cambodian people came to this museum when it first opened in 1980 to see if they could find out any information about missing relatives and then actually seeing a photo of a loved one would be proof of what had actually happened to them.

The rest of my time since returning from Kratie has been spent doing half a days work, as this was all that was required, having two major panics, firstly when the cash machine outside a bank swallowed my debit card but thankfully it was a hardware problem with the machine, as it worked fine the next day and secondly thinking I had lost my glasses, which luckily the landlord of my flat found outside on the street! I also met up with a young Canadian woman, whom I have met, for an evening meal and have been spending a lot of time in air conditioned coffee bars and restaurants with wifi access.

I have also included a photo of a wedding celebration marquee, which I took in Phnom Penh a couple of weeks ago. Apparently in Cambodia everyone has a right to hold their wedding ceremony and party in the street where they live. This large tent like structure is constructed in the street, invariably causing more jams than normal with passing traffic! As far as I can see a great deal of eating, playing of loud music and celebrating goes on. Similarly the same thing happens for funerals, presumably after the burial or cremation. The only difference I can see is that the marquee is decorated with black and white floral garlands instead of pink or yellow and white!

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Photos

View across the graveyard at Toul Sleng
14 tortured bodies were found when the Vietnamese raided the prison and then buried in the grounds.

The inside of a wooden cell
They are about 2m by 1m in size

Photos of the prisoners
There were many display boards in the museum like this devoted to all the victims

One of the seven survivors, Chum Mey, of Toul Sleng
He was spared because he was a mechanic and he was wanted to repair the typewriters, that were used to record the prisoners forced confessions.

Comments

[Chris]

Killing Fields etc
I remember seeing the film The Killing Fields in the 1980s and it was truly horrendous, so I can quite imagine how moving it must be to see the real venue where some of the horrors took place. Hopefully Angkor Wat will be a bit less chilling.