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Published: February 10th 2010
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The day started with a wander down to Phnom Penh Central Market. The main Art Deco building is undergoing serious structural repairs so was closed off. We asked some stall holders if we could come past their stalls to have a peek inside - John was trying to bend down and take a photo through a hole in the covering ... after much laughter they pulled the covering back so he could get a really good view. The whole of the inside was a mass of scaffolding, but it was possible to make out the domed structure which will look very special once complete.
Surprisingly, there was far more variety at this market than most of those we’ve visited so far, you could even buy fried spiders (a local snack), together with an assortment of other fried bugs and creepy crawlies - although we settled for banana fritters!
A quick tuk-tuk ride later and we were in an area renowned for its boutiques and eateries. Having looked at the prices in a couple of French-style restaurants we settled on typical street-side Cambodian cafe. However, not before Valerie had bought a button ring and we’d visited Phnom Penh’s only Quilting
Centre. Remarkable, I bought more than she did which has to be a first!
Quick break for quilters’ update:
The Mekong Quilt Centre has been established to help poor villagers earn some money making quilts. They are affiliated to the Vietnam Quilters which I’d visited in Hanoi - the Sunbonnet Sues there had coolie hats and braids, here they have Khymer scarves and sarongs! The quilts are really lovely, many made from silk and hand-quilted. They also use the sarong fabric that I purchased in Laos for £1.75, so I’ve got some ideas there!
In the afternoon, we visited an old school that Pol Pot, the former leader of Cambodia, turned into the Toul Sleng prison and then one of his many “Killing Fields” where people were taken from this prison and others for execution. During his 3 years in power over 1.7 million people were tortured and murdered or simply starved to death. Reportedly, there were 189 such prisons, 80 “killing fields,” and 19,403 mass graves in Cambodia. What makes things worse was the horrific ways people were tortured to obtain information before being killed. It’s hard to work out exactly why but a whole nation was
caught up in the genocide.
With backing from China, Pol Pot essentially tried to build an agrarian society. Cambodian intellectuals (which included anyone wearing glasses) were exterminated along with their whole families for fear that someone would lead a rebellion. As labour was turned to the land, whole cities were emptied. Money, schools, property ownership, foreign clothing, religious practices, and even traditional Khmer culture were all outlawed, with schools, universities, hospitals, temples, and government offices often turned into prisons and re-education camps. It’s shocking that the world knew so little about what was going on.
My lasting memory of Toul Sleng prison will be the rows of passport style photos of people, all of whom perished there - one image in particular will stay with us forever - that of the wife of Pol Pot’s childhood friend and deputy who had begun to question what was happening, which resulted in his whole family being taken to prison. Knowing her fate, this poor woman sat straightfaced and very erect with a baby in her arms and a single tear on her cheek.
We also met one of only 7 survivors who spent some time with us recalling his
experiences and treatment. His wish was that visitors spread the word in the hope that those responsible might be brought to account and the horrors would never be repeated.
There is certainly some resentment amongst the people that none of those responsible have yet been brought to justice, but also a fear to speak out as some of the existing rulers were so intricately tied up in the atrocities. The UN have finally supported the prosecution of those responsible, and four are currently on trial. However, as someone said, even if they are convicted, they’ll have a better standard of living in prison than most Cambodian people.
At the Killing fields themselves, there was a large Buddhist Stupa in remembrance of the dead that housed many of the excavated bones from the site. Deep pits dotted around the site marked the remains of mass graves, some of which had contained many hundreds of bodies. Descriptions of the killings were truly horrific and the numbers involved unimaginable. Throughout our visit the smell of smoke from some burning rubbish hung over the field - any bonfire in future is bound to remind us of this place!
However, two things
we’ll also take away give us great hope. Firstly, the constant sound of happy children playing at a local school, their joyful voices a positive note for the future. Secondly, the large number of beautiful butterflies flitting by in the afternoon sun, hopefully signifying in a small way that a peace and serenity had finally settled over this troubled place.
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Pete
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