The Killing Fields...

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Hi From Siem Reap!

We arrived here via plane this morning, and there is much to tell. However, I'd like to dedicate this entry entirely to our visit to the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum in Phnom Pehn, as I feel that this experience deserves its own entry (it's not always fun and games I guess). That being said, I also plan to be very detailed, as I'd like to try and articulate how moving and powerful all of these things were (this is more like a warning...).

As I mentioned in the last blog (and as many of you have since commented), being in Phnom Pehn was, thus far, the most jarring/eye opening experience that I have had since arriving in Asia. Up until 30 years ago, the city was ravaged by war, but in some parts of it, there is still fresh evidence of the destruction that took place. Even in the better (this term is used loosely) parts of town, I couldn't take more than two steps without having a child, cripple, or other type of beggar approach me. Seeing the children was especially heartbreaking, as many of them (ranging anywhere from 6-15) stay out all night trying to sell books and other small items to tourists and travelers. Moreover, the children have to answer to a pimp (nothing to do with sex, but i'm not sure how else to describe it), who tells the children where/who to start selling to.

After already having experienced how little the city has recovered during the past 30 years, we got up early yesterday morning and went to Choung Ek, a monument located at one of the many 'killing fields' left in the country. Again, the short background is that a totalitarian communist regime, called the Khmer Rouge (led by a dictator named Pol Pot), took over Cambodia from 1975-1979. In order to effectively move forward, the Khmer Rouge initiated a massive genocide, executing more than 1.7 million people (men, women, children, and babies). Many of the people executed were doctors, teachers, lawyers, and other wealthy and educated people, as the Khmer Rouge wanted a country where all people would be 'equal.'

Upon arriving at Choung Ek, we walked down a short path at the end of which was a tower/temple (the tower was about the size of the little red lighthouse that's beneath the GWB). Upon entering the tower, there is a small perimeter, as the middle of the tower is full of shelves about 50 feet high filled with skulls (from people of all ages) taken from the mass graves that were dug up around 1980. The shock of seeing this was one of many we would feel during our excursion, and words can't quite describe the power of this place, especially since it's quite easy to visualize it as it was 30 year ago. After spending as much time as I could stand in the tower, we continued walking along a dirt path towards the actual mass graves. Looking down, it was easy to see pieces of bones still sticking up out of the ground, a completely nauseating sight.

While walking along this path, there were holes along the sides (about the size of an extra large jacuzzi), each with signs saying, for example, "Mass Grave of 450 People," or "Mass Grave of 160 people without Heads", or "Mass Grave of more than 100 victims children and women whose majority were naked." We also saw signs that signaled where the killing tools were kept (these consisted of things like shackles, hatchets, knives, garden hoes, and steel rods, as the soldiers didn't feel the need to 'waste bullets' on executions). We came across a tree, at the bottom of which was a pile of bones and a sign that read, "Killing Tree Against which executioners beat children." During many of the executions, there were loudspeakers that masked the sound of screaming that took place.

At that point, many of us had had enough, and we walked back along the bone littered path to the bus. However, the fun wasn't quite over, as our next stop was the Genocide Museum, located in the center of Phnom Penh. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was formerly Security Prison 21 (S-21), which had been a high-school before being converted into a prison by the Khmer Rough in 1975. At S-21, prisoners (men women and children alike) were beaten, raped, and tortured before being taken to the killing fields to be executed. Many of the cells were smaller than the bathroom in my apartment, and during the Khmer Rouge's rule, glass panes were placed on the windows of the cells to dull the sound of screaming. There were also gallows in the courtyard, where many prisoners were hung. At the museum, we were able to visit and go inside many of the former cells, and it wasn't hard to picture the atrocities that took place there such a short time ago. There were also rows of pictures on some of the walls (some more graphic than others) of almost all of the prisoners that spent time at S-21.

We left the museum just before lunch and, needing a bit of time to myself, I hung by the pool for the rest of the day. Yesterday was a truly life changing experience, in that it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to imagine Human Beings doing these kinds of things to each other.

I think I can speak for the entire group when I say that we were all quite happy to board our plane this morning to Siem Reap, which seems like a lovely town (and a much happier place). As I said, tomorrow we go visit Angkor Wat, which is supposedly one of the highlights of the trip. Then, in two days, I fly to Ho Chi Minh City (Woo Hoo).

Hope you guys enjoyed this one...I promise the next one will be be much more uplifting, if not rib crackingly funny.

As always, keep those comments coming. It gets lonely all the way over here.

Hi Mom!!!

Matthew

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Comments

[Randye]

a river of tears...
a river of tears...

[Hal]

Very moving
After the Holocaust, mankind said "never again," and yet genocide continues. What a sad commentary on the human condition. I look forward to discussing with you when you get back. Stay safe. Hal