Advertisement
Published: December 26th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Security guard in Phnom Phen
He was trying real hard not to smile. Although I'm very glad to have visited Cambodia, it was the hardest country to visit by far.
Cambodia has a population of over 13 million people, with Phnom Penh being its capital. Cambodia is the successor state of the once powerful Hindu and Buddhist Khmer Empire, which ruled most of the Indochinese Peninsula between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. Most Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists of Khmer extraction, but the country also has a substantial number of predominantly Muslim Cham, as well as ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and small number of hill tribes. Until the 15th century, the Khmer Empire was a powerful civilization who's center of power was Angkor. Here, a series of capitals were constructed during the empire's zenith. Angkor Wat, the most famous and best-preserved religious temple at the site, was built between 802 and 1220 AD for King Suryavarman II as his state temple and capital city. From Angkor the Khmer kings ruled over a vast domain that reached from Vietnam to China to the Bay of Bengal. There are more than 100 stone temples at Angkor, making it the largest religious structure in the world. From 1969, Cambodia was sucked into the Vietnam conflict. The US secretly
began bombing suspected communist base camps in Cambodia. In 1970, American and South Vietnamese troops invaded the country to root out Vietnamese communist forces. They failed and only pushed Cambodia's communists and their Vietnamese allies deep into Cambodia's interior. Soon, the entire country was involved in savage fighting. This fighting only ended at the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. After taking over Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot's leadership, started one of the worst revolutions the world has ever seen. During the next four years hundreds of thousands of Cambodian's, mostly educated people, were relocated to the countryside. Here, they were tortured to death or executed. Thousands of people who spoke foreign languages or wore glasses were considered "parasites" and killed. Hundreds of thousands more died of mistreatment, malnutriton and disease. Almost two million Cambodians died between 1975 and 1979 as a direct result of the policies of the Khmer Rouge. In late 1978, Vietnam invaded and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. They headed off to the jungles bordering Thailand and maintained a guerrilla war throughout the 1980s against the Vietnamese backed government in Phnom Penh. In 1991, both sides met in Paris and
signed a peace accourd, which allowed UN-administered elections in 1993. A new constitution was drawn up and adopted, allowing former King Norodom Sihanouk to rule again. Two decades after the Khmer Rouge revolution, a historic agreement between the UN and the Cambodian government created the first court to bring surviving members to trial, but bureaucratic bickering has delayed its opening. Many Cambodians felt it was already too late to try Pol Pot, who escaped punishment when he died in 1998.
Visiting the prison where thousands of Cambodians were tortured was very difficult for me to experience. S-21 was established at Tuol Sleng, a former high school, in May 1976. This was the most secret organ of the Khmer Rouge regime. S-21 stands for "Security Office 21". It was Angkor's premier security institution, specifically designed for the interrogation and extermination of anti-Angkor elements. The prison was enclosed by two walls of iron, all covered with dense, electrified barbed wire to prevent anyone from escaping. Houses around the four school buildings were used as administration, interrogation and torture offices. All the classrooms of Tuol Sleng high school were converted into prison cells. The windows were enclosed by iron bars, and covered
Conversing with a monk.
Typical conversation...what's your name, where are you from, are you married, can I have your e-mail...wait, what? Am I being hit on by a monk?! with tangled barbed wire. The number of workers in the S-21 complex totaled 1,720. Within each unit, there were several sub-units composed children ranging from 10 to 15 years of age. These children were selected by the Khmer Rouge regime to work as guards. The museum at the prison shows a few photos of these children in training. You can see the look of evil and violence in their eyes as they train with guns and weapons in their hands. These children, along with the rest of the guards, made sure the prisoners followed a strict guideline created by the regime. The prisoners were kept in small cells and shackled by chains to the walls and floor. Before the prisoners were placed in the cells they were photographed. Detailed biographies of their childhood, up to the dates of their arrests, were recorded. The photos of all prisoners (12,499 including children) are on display at the museum. If the prisoners did anything against the strict rules set for them, they were punished and eventually sent off to be executed at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Here, approximately 17,000 men, women and children were killed between 1975 and 1978. There is
a huge white stupa amid the grounds that serves as a memorial to the people who were executed. Behind the stupa's glass panels are over 8,000 skulls found during excavations in 1980. After the horrible sites of S-21 and the Killing Fields, it was time to visit a nearby orphanage.
I visited the Cambodian Light Children Association. Although it was sad to see so many kids left orphan, it was a nice change to hear their laughter after such a heavy day. There are 140 children that stay at this orphanage. About 40 of them immediately attacked me as I walked in. They wanted nothing from me except my friendship...and for me to take about 1,000 photos of them. They were all so sweet and it was very difficult for me to leave them. Hopefully some day they will all find a nice home...but I know better.
After visiting Cambodia, I really realize how lucky I am. Not only to have a wonderful family and a nice home, but to be apart of a country where these adversities would not occur in modern day. I find it so unbelievable that such horrible things have occurred in such recent
history and are still happening in other parts of the world today. Something to really think about...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.296s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0688s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb