Phnom Penh

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Phnom Penh is a hectic hectic place - traffic zooms up and down the streets, paying little or no attention to road markings or signs - mental. There's not much I can say about the places we've been over the last couple of days that I'm sure a lot of you don't know already or at least you could get a better picture of by googling or enclyopeding (IT'S A WORD) ...anyway, here's my 2 Riel:

Tuol Sleng - this was originally a High School in Phnom Penh but during Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge's evacuation of Phnom Penh ( they moved 6 million citizens from their homes and sent them to the countryside under the pretence that the Americans were going to bomb) it became a prison and interrogation centre. It was known as S21 and the classrooms were remodeled to make tiny cells and torture chambers. The place has a very strange feel to it - some of the rooms have been left pretty much as they were found - an iron bed with shackles and then a photo from the Khmer Rouge's archives of somebody, badly beaten generally, shackled to it. Some of the rooms just have hundreds and hundreds of 'prisoner' photos - some of whom can't be more than about 3 years old, staring at you from the wall. Others were of women shackled with new borns in their arms. Another room was where the majority of prisoners slept, feet to feet, side by side, all shackled together and forbidden to make a sound.

Another had testimony from both former prisoners, relatives of those that were held there and those working as wardens for the Khmer Rouge - this was equally sad - it was a case of Do or be done to.

About 20,000 people were imprisoned here between 75-79 and of those, 20 survived. Most were accused of being intellectuals, traitors, allies to the former regime etc. Anything that didn't fit in with Pol Pot's Year Zero idea of a new beginning based on loyalty to the Khmer Rouge and a purely agrarian society. It's impossible to comprehend the mentality of somebody who thinks that ridding society of learning, medicine, family units, individualism of any kind (only black clothing allowed throughout the country) and enslaving everybody in the fields is the way forward. Entire families were split up and those unlucky enough to end up at S21 were tortured, severely, until they confessed to whatever made-up crime they were accused of. The bodies or victims were then transported to the killing fields and executed before being tossed into a mass grave - one of which we visited today.

Here are the rules from S21:

1. You must answer accordingly to my question. Don’t turn them away.
2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Don’t be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Don’t make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.
9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many many lashes of electric wire.
10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.


Horrific stuff. It really makes you view the people in this city in a different light and question the psychological impact this must have had. Basically anybody our age or older had direct dealings with this regime and had relatives and friends killed or forced to be members of the Khmer Rouge - including thousands of child soldiers. It's amazing to see the former empty city in all it's hustle and bustle just 30 years later.

Apart from that we have been taking in the sounds and smells and playing a lot of Connect 4. So there. Heading to Vietnam in a few days - will keep you posted.

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Comments

[David Lynch]

Very interesting stuff guys- I read Philip Short's ‘Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare’ last year - and it was an excellent and scary read. The thing about Pol Pot was that he got his third level education in cultured France! And at one stage he seemed to have some progressive views about what should happen in his country- and then that changed BIG TIME and the nightmare of S21 and everything else happened. Also you said in earlier comment that in Laos some of the stuff in the museums was blaming the Cambodians for things- in that book it comes across that the Cambodians in turn blame and resent the Vietnamese who in turn blame and resent the Chinese! But I suppose we know a thing or two about blaming and resenting a larger neighbour for and about everything :) You are missing nothing but the wettest summer in Dublin since Noah sailed the ocean blue- but you sound like you are having a terrific time. Stay safe and enjoy rest of your adventure. Dave