The horrors of humanity... and something for me to ponder

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Monday kicked off with another session of Khmer 101, ably led by P. The hotel staff were most amused as they listened to us revise our greetings, introduce ourselves repeatedly, ask one another whether we had eaten any rice yet, and express our deep gratitude to one another for the valuable gift of Phill & Di's hotel room key that was being passed around. Whilst none of us were quite fluent after these sessions, we've all gotten quite a lot of use out of the key phrases we learned. Kudos to P for lining it all up for us.

Equipped with enough Khmer to get ourselves into trouble, and not quite enough to get ourselves out of it, we set out for our first full day in Cambodia. The mood as we boarded the bus was one of jovial anticipation, however as we arrived at our first destination for the day, the infamous Tuol Seng prison, the general feeling quickly became more somber.

Tuol Seng

Tuol Seng, or S21 as it was also known was originally a high school, however during the Pol Pot regime it was converted into a prison under the command of Comrade Duch. Over 20,000 men, women and children were held in the prison over a period of about 4 years. Our tour guide had herself suffered under Pol Pot, losing her parents and being forced into labour as a small child. I couldn't help but wonder whether spending her days talking about the events of that time kept the trauma alive, or whether it had a more therapeutic effect for her. She took us to building 1, where the ground floor classrooms had been used to hold people who were being interrogated, and tortured, until they would 'confess' to being CIA, KGB or other spies. On the walls in each of these rooms is an enlarged photograph, taken by the first people to enter after the Khmer Rouge had fled. Each photo shows the body of the last prisoner held in the room, still chained to their bed, often mutilated and surrounded by a pool of blood or implements of torture - left there by the guards who murdered them before fleeing the city.

There was an awful lot more to see, far, far more than I can do justice to at the moment. But have a read of the wikipedia page here to get more of an idea. It really is worth a look. You can also see some of the photos that were recovered from the prison here

Choeung Ek Memorial

Our second destination for the day was a bit outside of the city, to the Choeung Ek Memorial, one of the many killing fields, where prisoners from S.21 were sent to be executed. As our guide walked us through the fields, weaving a path between the seemingly endless pits that are in fact mass graves, the story he told us was surreal. I'm still not really able to comprehend the atrocities that took place here. The prisoners were brought to the fields by truck, bound and often blindfolded. Speakers were set up in the trees to play music at such a volume that the other prisoners awaiting execution could not hear the screams of the current victim. I can't even imagine how terrified and alone each of those thousands upon thousands of men, women and children must have felt - to be bound and unable to even see or hear what was happening.

The brutality of the murders that took place at Choeung Ek is far beyond the level of evil one would expect to find in even the most warped horror film. People were bludgeoned to death with sticks rather than 'wasting' a bullet. Those few who didn't die from their injuries would have been buried alive under the bodies of their family and friends. Not even children were spared - under the orders of Comrade Duch, every member of the family would be executed to prevent the possibility of revenge killings. Duch has given testimony that some of the guards would tear babies and small children from the arms of from their mothers, and then whilst the mother watched, would swing their son or daughter around by the ankles, smashing the child's tiny skull repeatedly against a tree before tossing his or her now lifeless body into the waiting pit. The mother would be beaten to death soon after.

Walking around the fields at the Choeung Ek Memorial is not a comfortable experience. Standing in the warm air, under a clear blue sky, beneath the trees that grow there, it was difficult to even imagine that such evil had transpired in this very place, on the very ground we stood on, only a few decades ago. And yet, it was impossible for us to walk more than a few metres without stepping on some decaying item of clothing, brought to the surface from within the graves by the recent rains. There is something that seems inherently wrong about simply walking over the clothes a person was murdered in, yet our guide told us that new pieces of clothing are constantly being brought to the surface. Even more confronting was finding the teeth of one of the victims, risen to the surface and now being trampled by people as they walk though the site.

Something to ponder

Comrade Duch is the man who was responsible for both S21 prison and the Choeung Ek killing fields. The man who ordered the horrendous acts of evil that took place. So what happened to Duch after the Khmer Rouge fell? Wikipedia tells much of the detail, but the most startling thing is that this man, one of the bloodiest mass murderers the world has known, became a follower of Jesus - and even a pastor leading a church. Quite a turn around. As you can imagine (or discover for yourself with a quick google) this raises a lot of questions - like is his faith even genuine? And if it is, is there anything God can't forgive?. While I do believe that God can truly transform the most unlikely of people, I can't answer the first question, but I think the bible makes the answer to the second question clear: There is nothing that God can't forgive through Jesus' death. So that means Duch gets to be forgiven then? He 'gets away with it' in an eternal sense? This isn't at all an easy concept - yet I do believe that if Duch's faith is as genuine as it appears to be, then on judgment day, Duch and I are going to be headed for the same place. Something to ponder. I'll be interested to hear what other people might think about that.

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Photos

Looks just like an ordinary school...
Photo by Di M

...but this is not your ordinary classroom
Photo by Di M

Skulls housed in the memorial
Photo by Di M

Killing tree
Photo by Di M

Teeth that have risen to the surface
Photo by Di M

Comrade Duch
Photo by Di M

Comments

[Brian]

God's grace - limited?
Wow, so many things to contemplate Michelle… I can only imagine how surreal it must be to have a guide take you through such a confronting site of torture and destruction, walking in the steps of tortured prisoners of war now departed. Regardless of how genuine Comrade Duch’s faith is – I don’t get to decide that - I think it speaks to the all-sufficient grace of our incredible God that Duch can be saved from eternal death and destruction, and be called a child of God. Hebrews 3:14 tells me “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.” That’s not to say there should be no consequences for Comrade Duch’s sin – as a citizen of this world I expect and call for justice, which the United Nations supervised trial of Duch has been called to implement. However this verse reminds me that sharing in Christ allows his followers to experience an eternal victory over evil, a triumph over any dictatorial persuasions of human governments of the day, and it speaks of a time when followers of Christ will have a perfect relationship with their everlasting God - free from the presence, power, and penalty of evil. There is a bitter-sweet beauty in Comrade Duch’s story, that despite the devastation, horror and ruin this man is alleged to have caused, our eternal God has a love for him that can forgive this evil. My hope is that people reading about Comrade Duch’s salvation would think that if God can forgive Duch, he must be able to forgive them as well. 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Amen to that.

[Dee]

How people can even believe in "GOD" after such atrocities makes me ponder just as much.....I lived in cambodia for 2 years....the suffering theyve been through is unbelievable but the Khmers are strong people and have rebuilt at least part of what was taken...no help from "god" required .....

[Claire Drinkwater]

won't be as wordy as most - not my way - but I did stop and contemplate what you described. Our second saving grace is that you are right - we can't understand what it is like. Can see it is having an impact on u too. Come home safe.

[mum]

horrors of humanity
now shell, don't wipe this one. my comment was along the lines that the world has not learned from history. we still go on killing each other, just because ???? you are not the same as me, you speak differently, think, walk, act, live differently. Nanna and Pop never dreamed that there would be a time after the horror and despair of the 2nd WW, that torture, killing would still take place en masse. Yet, there are the times when the human family does reach out to one another and care, comfort, share. and that is what we have to hold onto. Pop talked about the Burma Railway, Hellfire Pass, Nanna Musial, the horrors of the concentration camps - of having no homeland toreturn to. She was Polish. And yet we are capable of so much that is positive and loving. Yes, you, me Duch and a whole lot of others are all heading for the same place, and we are reliant on God's mercy and grace. Duch raises many questions for us all, most of the uncomfortable and confronting. but that is what we need.