Democratic Kampuchea: Phnom Penh and the Khmer Rouge Legacy

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From Siem Reap I took a 7 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh. It cost $10 and they dropped me off at a bus station. I had arranged for my hostel to pick me up so I didn't have to find the place myself. They did that for free and that is just one thing to love about accomadation in South East Asia. It seems like they all compete to offer extras to travellers.

The national museum and the royal palace museum are both beautiful sights with art and gilded architecture all over the place.

Visiting Phnom Penh for a tourist means confronting the legacy the Khmer Rouge left on Cambodia for is short reign of terror from 1973-78. The major tourist attractions in Phnom Penh are the Royal Palace, the National Museum, and the central market all of which are very pretty and interesting. But most important are S21 genocide Museum, and the Killing Feilds.

In 1973 S21 was a high school. After Phnom Penh was evacuated the Khmer Rouge converted the center of learning into a prison and interrogation center for their prisoners. You might think the regime was being ironic with thier choice of venue, but it was probably just conveniece. A highschool has lots of large square rooms easy to divide into individual cells.

Every institution across the country—temples, schools, mosques, stores—was closed as the Khmer Rouge began to wipe out Cambodia’s intellectuals. Obviously, teachers, students, journalists, and priests were killed right away, but anyone tainted by education was suspect. Wearing glasses or knowing a foreign language was enough to prove that a person had been poisoned by a dangerous degree of learning. These people would be killed as well, as would their parents, spouses, and children. As with the Soviet purges and Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the taint of being a class enemy fell on all of the members of a family. Tuol Sleng high school in the suburbs of Phnom Penh was adapted as a prison, S-21. The records show that only 7 of the 14,000 prisoners who entered this building survived the visit. That’s seven period, not seven thousand."²

As a museum some of the rooms have been left as converted prison cells with manacles and bed frames. Several rooms have just walls and walls of photos of the former prisoners, all of whom were destined to be sent to the Killing Fields. I tried to look at all of the photos, though I don't know what I was looking for. I know that it really struck me looking at the pictures of the women and girls that they were all sporting the same hair hair cut. I guess the men had all had the same hair cut, too, but for women their hair is part of thier individual expression. Even if a woman chooses to adopt a plain style for convience or braids it and covers it with a sunbonnet, all of those things express a little bit of who she is. When I was looking at the pictures of those women I imagined their frustration and rage at having every detail of their live controlled. I am sure that is my imagination since they were all about to be murdered and probably had more important things on their mind.

One of our rules applies to how we dress. As you see, we wear the same clothes. Everyone wears his or her hair in the same style. By wearing the same thing, we rid ourselves of the corrupt Western creation of vanity.¹

I arranged a tuktuk to see the Killing Fields, which is about 15 km outside the city. It cost $10 and is another instance where a traveling companion would have made my trip more cost effective. The Genocide museum is very depressing and worthwhile. The entrance fee includes an audio guide narrated by a survivor of the Khmer regime. Basically it describes the brutal murders carried out there and the disposal of hundreds of bodies. The worst part is a tree in the middle of the park that was used to bash the heads of babies before they were dumped in a mass grave.

Ma, we are starving to death. Many people are dying in the village. Yet the government trades our crops to buy guns to kill more people.” “Shh … don’t talk so loud. It is a crime to speak against the Angkar. If the soldiers hear you they will take you away and kill you. ¹

The whole time I was in Phnom Penh and reading about the history and first person accounts, all I could think was 'why did I not know about this.' What kind of school did I go to that this doesn't show up in the world history curriculum?



1 First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung

2 The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities by Matthew White

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Photos

Inside the Memorial Stupa
The Stupa contains the remains of the victims found in the fields.

The Killing Tree
The tree that as used to murder children by bashing their heads against the trunk.