The Killing Fields and Phnom Penh

---

The Killing Fields and Phnom Penh



We have the best driver. He got us to Phnom Penh in 5 hours on what is usually a 6-8 hour bone jarring trip. Granted the roads were better (everything is relative) and he took a short cut. We did have our moments of potholes, gravel, villages and all their life (50% of Cambodians are under 25 years of age....anyone under the age of 10 is playing on the road.)



Today was Saturday and apparently the people that work in the factories are on their way home to their villages. We passed van after van fully loaded and more with people. Did you know that if you put an extension on the back of your van you can strap motorbikes (YES, PLURAL), bags of produce, furniture, cover with a mesh net and then people can hang on. Must not forget the roof: people can sit on it.....easily room for another 6-10 people. After all there are at least 25 people in the van. We stopped at one dusty bus stop.....just a dusty crossroads with food stalls and a bathroom (generous description). we saw a van (not a bus) that our guide counted about 50 people on. They were sitting 5 per bench and this did not include kids on laps. It is estimated that 5-10 Cambodians die each day in traffic accidents. These buses are one reason. This is the worst I've seen anywhere.....even India was way, way better.



As we approached Phnom Penh, the roads, housing, businesses all improved. Lunch was at a delightful restaurant with a courtyard garden and pond. It was an hour from the dusty crossroads but a universe away.



We were then off to the Killing Fields and S21. S21 is a school that was converted to a prison and torture chamber. Once they were finished with the people at S21 they had their picture taken and were sent to the Killing Fields and killed. The Killing filed we visited is one of 288 in Cambodia.



The following is from Deb's blog:



"The situation Cambodia found itself in during the four years the Khmer Rouge was in power is quite frankly, impossible to get one's head around. I had done some reading about Pol Pot and his army's atrocities and was (I thought) semi prepared for our tour of The Killing Fields and S21...there is no way I could have been more mistaken. The guide assigned to us during our stay in Phnom Penh was a Khmer Rouge survivor, but like nearly everyone else in Cambodia today, had lost family members during the murderous occupation of the country from 1975-1979. His father, brother and sister had all been detained at S21 and murdered at The Killing Fields, so while he was able to give us first hand information regarding this part of Cambodia's history, his memories of the inhumanity that ended just as he turned 18 were as real to him that afternoon as they had been years before.



The hours we spent touring The Killing Fields and S21 (Security Prison 21) were the most disturbing I can recall. The government of Cambodia has erected an enormous stupa in memory of the over 2 million citizens who were rounded up and massacred by Pol Pot's army, and visitors to The Killing Fields are encouraged to leave a donation, no matter how small, to help the country rebuild. The sight of the fields, and the memorials and information erected there literally took the breath right out of my body. Phnom Penh has left most things intact in remembrance of the victims...clothing, shoes and rags still litter the area...bone fragments, teeth, pieces of skulls, are all still there. The stupa houses thousands of recovered skulls, organized by age and gender and around each of the fields, are informational signs detailing how many people were murdered in a particular spot, and how they were killed. The sight of the field where mothers and children were herded up and slaughtered en mass nearly brought me to my knees...in all my life, all my imagination, all my ability to think about human behaviour, NEVER could I have fathomed what I saw at The Killing Fields that day.



S21 was a high school the Khmer Rouge took over and utilized for holding and torturing prisoners before putting them to death; suffice to say the photographs and information contained there were so disturbing, we spent only a few moments touring before we left the site with our guide. One thing I should mention, however....of the millions of Cambodians captured and killed by Pol Pot's army, 7 people survived...SEVEN ONLY. Five of them have since died, but one of the two remaining survivors was at the gates of S21 the day we toured and we had the chance to meet him and read his story. It is not possible for me to accurately describe how it felt to look at this man and imagine what he'd been through, but when he looked up at me and took my hand in his, I knew the word :survivor" would forever more mean something different to me than it had in the past."



Back to Dave:



One of the things that struck me both about the Killing fields and S21 is how ordinary they are. By ordinary, I mean the Killing field is just another small field on the edge of Phnom Penh. It is surrounded by houses and businesses, just like S21. S21 is just a school in a suburb of the city (it was the largest high school). There is no black cloud or sense of evil at these places. The ordinariness is a reminder that this could happen any where. It is hard to picture these smiling, friendly giggling Cambodians turning into mass killers but they did.



We spent late afternoon and evening wandering through the city. Our hotel was a short walk to the riverside promenade. This is the place to be and be seen on a Sunday night in Phnom Penh. The streets were jammed with motor bikes, taxis, vans and people. It was a heaving mass of vehicles and with horns in active use. Then there were the people, both attempting to walk or sell you something. We made ot to the Royal Palace which looked very dramatic all lit up at night.





The walk back to the hotel was a bit quieter since it started to rain.

---