Cambodia's Home Truths

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After a long 12 hour journey to the capital, we found ourselves in Phnom Penh. The French colonial influence on the city, like in Saigon, is very clear to see, as the open spaces and picturesque sidewalks could have been in Paris itself. We had 2 full days in Phnom Penh, which meant that we were going to be very busy during our time there.

The first morning, therefore, was an early one, as we had a car booked for 8am in the morning. Our first two stops that morning would give us a better understanding of Cambodia's tragic past. In 1975, led by a man named Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia. In their efforts to create a "Socialist utopia", everyone was sent to the countryside to do effectively slave labour. Money was abolished, as was talking, and food was pretty much non-existent (any that was farmed either went to army generals or was exported to China). Anyone who disobeyed the rules, or was suspected of speaking out against the government was tortured and then killed. By 1978, army generals who knew about the killings were also killed, as the Khmer Rouge tried to keep it's barbaric acts away from international scrutiny. In addition, anyone who did not fit with their ideas of a socialist utopia (intellectuals, right wing thinkers etc) were also executed. All in all, including those who died of starvation, it is estimated that of a population of 7 million, 2 million people died under the Khmer Rouge in the four years before they were toppled by Vietnamese forces.

Our first stop therefore, was Cheong Ek, the site of the mass graves of some of those executed by the Khmer Rouge. In this site alone (where only 60% of the graves have been unearthed), almost 9000 bodies have been found. The most stark building in the field is the large stupa, which houses the skulls of those in the mass graves. Two things were immediately striking to me. The first was the sign accompanying those skulls on the bottom level, wjhich read "Aged between 15 and 25 years old", emphasising that it was people just like me who were subject to such brutality. The second was the way many of the sculls had large fractures in them. This was evidence of how, in order to avoid wasting precious bullets, most victims at Cheong Ek were bludgeoned to death.

The next stop also related to the same period in Cambodian history. We visited the site where most people murdered at Cheong Ek were held before execution, Prison S-21. Here, prisoners were tortured, so that they would provide a confession for their "Crimes". Like many barbaric regimes, the Khmer Rouge kept very detailed records about their victims life and confessions, and much of this is on display at S-21. Most striking of all are the rooms after rooms filled with photographs of the faces of those entering the prison. For all but 7 of them, it would be the last picture ever taken of them.

After lunch, we went to the somewhat lighter national museum, which houses much of the sculptures of the Angkor period. It reminded me why I don't go to art museums.

The next day was shopping an monument day. We visited the Vietnamese friendship monument, the Victory monument and the impressive Wat Phnom (see picture). A rather bizarre sight was an elephant, just below the Wat, standing on the pavement, I don't quite know what it was doing there, but it certainly seemed to be taking in the sights and sounds of Phnom Penh. We did, however, pick a poor day to go shopping. Whilst the very expensive central market was open (albeit in a different place as the normal building was undergoing renovation), less could be said for the Russian Market. On this day, the Thai Prime Minister was visiting Cambodia. Now, the Khmers aren't too fond of the Thais, and therefore a political demonstration was planned, involving many of the shopkeepers in the Russian Market. This meant that when we arrived at the Russian Market, it was totally deserted, and all the shops shut up. It also meant that when we drove back to the hotel, we had to wait 10 minutes on the side of a roundabout so that the Thai Prime Minister's cavalcade could pass. This involved around 30 cars, one of which was surrounded by 15-20 policemen on motorbikes.

Before we headed to the airport on our final day, we decided to stop at the shooting range. Now, whilst it was ridiculously expensive (around a pound a bullet), it was great fun. Sarah started off with the AK47, which made a deafening sound as it fired. The guy then put it onto Auto, and I was surprised by how accurate her shot was, hitting the target probably in one out of 3 shots, not a bad effort for such a big weapon. I then took up the adversary of the AK47, a US M16 (pictured below). This is one beast of a weapon. It makes a massive blast, you see fire coming out of the end and my face was filled with toxic smelling smoke. Whilst my aim was much worse than Sarah's, I think I completely missed the target with all shots, I had great fun spraying out bullets, especially when it got put on automatic, and I pulled down the trigger and I saw plooms of smoke come up from the tire wall behind the target. The guy did offer us the opportunity to blow up a cow with a rocket-launcher, a few of which were tied up outside the shooting range, but at $200, I felt it was a bit too expensive - maybe next time.

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