Last night was kind of tough. The A/C never really did anything and the fan made it just barely bearable. I am beyond tired. I don’t think the kids slept well either. We are down early in the Irish Pub for a quick breakfast and then ready for the day. Yesterday we arranged for a tuk-tuk driver for the day through our Canadian hotel manager. Our driver is waiting for us and we are off.
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| Tuol Sleng. |
Today is going to be an interesting day for me. This is the first city we have been to on our trip that I visited when I was here in Southeast Asia back in 2002. It will be interesting to compare the experiences and see the changes. It is already obvious the city has grown quite a bit.
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| 'Interrogation' rules. |
As we wind through the streets, I am reminded that Cambodia is a beautiful and tragic country. The people are amazing and the country is stunning. But, Cambodia has suffered one of the greatest human rights tragedies of our time. The people still suffer from it today. It is all a result of their former leader, Pol Pot.
Pol Pot was the communist leader of Cambodia back in the 70s. He was so afraid of uprisings and rebellion that he took the poor youth of Cambodia, enlisted them in the Khmer Rouge, gave them guns and a directive of genocide. The Khmer Rouge wiped out all of the people Pol Pot feared would stand against him. They killed all of the doctors, lawyers, professors, artists, musicians. All of the intellectuals of society. They practically killed off all of the older generations. One thing that mom, dad and I notice is that there aren’t that many old people around. No where near the number of old people we saw in Laos and Beijing. Most of them were killed in the 70s.
As we wind through the streets, nothing is familiar to me. I don’t recognize anything. Then we make a few more turns and I recognize our first stop, Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21.
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| 'Interrogation' room. |
This is a really heavy place. I can feel the weight of it. Nothing but bad vibes here. Tuol Sleng used to be a school back before the Pol Pot era. Once Pol Pot came to power, Tuol Sleng was taken over and converted in to a security prison and interrogation center. More accurately, a place where confessions of opposing Pol Pot were tortured out of people. Every person who entered these doors for ‘interrogation’, an estimated 17,000, ended up dead, except seven.
As I walk through the rooms and the halls, it is hard to get a sense that this used to be a place of education and growth. The rooms still have some of the remnants of torture and there are photos of how the rooms looked with dead bodies in them the day the Vietnamese arrived and liberated Phnom Penh.
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| Solitary confinement cells. |
I am amazed that the museum hasn’t become very commercial. It certainly has changed. There are more displays and updated information. But no gaudy gift shops or harassing hawkers. They have taken great to care to ensure the grounds are kept quiet and respected.
There are four main buildings in Tuol Sleng. The museum still has the displays of photographs of formers prisoners and former workers. There are also the rooms with the beds the prisoners were strapped to. There are the torture mechanisms, such as the waterboarding apparatus. And rooms of endless solitary confinement cells.
The new additions are fascinating. There is a room highlighting the former leaders of Tuol Sleng and the current status of their trials for crimes against humanity. There is a photo display with confessions from former S-21 workers.
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| Photos of former prisoners. |
One of the confessions of the former S-21 workers highlights the difficulty in achieving closure from this period in history for Cambodians. The former worker basically said that he had no regrets about what he did at S-21. He knows many people died, but he doesn’t regret how he contributed to it. He did his job. He did what he was told to do. If he didn’t, he would have been killed. So, in aiding in the killing of others, he survived. In his eyes, he is a victim too. On top of that, he is not being charged with any crimes. He was a kid when this happened. He now lives like all other Cambodians. Free. No accountability or punishment for what he did.
The hardest part in achieving closure from what occurred during Pol Pot’s regime is finding a place to direct the anger and hold the responsible parties accountable. While there are a handful of people who have been arrested and are on trial for crimes against humanity, most people do not believe they will actually be held responsible. The most culpable off all people, Pol Pot, died quietly in his bed with his wife by his side in 1998. He was never held accountable. Many believe the same will happen to the few who are currently on trial. They are old and the proceedings are moving slowly. The Khmer Rouge fell in 1979. 32 years ago. And to this day, not a single verdict has been handed down. No Cambodian has received closure yet.
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| The Buddhist stupa. |
While some people did die within the walls of Tuol Sleng, most were taken to the Choeung Elk extermination center, better known as The Killing Fields. This is our second and last stop of the day. As we pull up to the gate of The Killing Fields, it is obvious it has changed since I was here in 2002. There is a new huge gate, walls enclosing the area, paved walkway, a place to buy food, drinks, souvenirs. Thankfully, just like S-21, Choeung Elk is still very quiet and solemn. Not much talking at all. Not much noise.
The Killing Fields is like Tuol Sleng. A very heavy place. This place has a bit of a different vibe though. You can certainly feel the death, but it isn’t as dark here. It isn’t as sinister. Perhaps that is because it is open-air and there is green grass growing up through the mass graves. A metaphor for healing? I don’t know. It is really hard to wrap my mind around what happened here.
The centerpiece of The Killing Fields is the Buddhist stupa. Standing several stories tall, it has many layers that are filled with skulls, bones and clothes from the people exhumed from the mass graves. Off to one side is a museum with photos and facts about Choeung Elk and a screening room for a documentary about the extermination center.
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| The mass graves. |
Walking around The Killing Fields is surreal and eerie. The mass graves look like nothing more than big dents in the ground. A few are protected by a railing, but many are open and you can easily walk right through them. Thankfully, people don’t. As a result, there are well-worn footpaths between the graves.
One thing that makes Choeung Elk even more disturbing is the manner in which the people were killed. The Khmer Rouge didn’t want to waste any bullets or ammunition. There were no firing squads. The people were stabbed or their throats slit and then pushed into the mass graves. The babies were often grabbed by the ankles and swung like baseball bats into a tree and then tossed into the graves.
As we walk on the paths between the graves, there are clothes and bones and teeth rising to the surface from the rains. It is almost impossible not to step on them at some point. It is obvious this is not something that occurred in the distant past. This is very recent. Within my lifetime. The wounds are still fresh.
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| Skulls inside the stupa. |
Cambodia sticks out from Laos and my experience in Vietnam when I was here last time. Now that I have the comparison of the countries in the region, it is easier to connect the dots and understand the effects of someone like Pol Pot.
There seems to be a lack of education in certain aspects of Cambodia. That is not an insult, simply an observation. The people are amazing and nice. But the way some things are done makes you question them. For example, the trip from Laos to Cambodia, where we switched vans and were crammed into a much smaller van in Cambodia and had to deal with the scam. That was definitely not the right way to do things. But these kids, and they are young, were extremely nice. They just haven’t been educated and taught the right way to do things. They are just trying to make money. The towns are crawling with tuk-tuk drivers. Too many that the current number of tourists can’t keep them all employed. But, it takes no education to be a tuk-tuk driver. An older, wiser generation has not explained the value of higher education to the younger generations. And for a long time there was no older, wiser generation to teach them.
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| Bones rising up on the walk paths. |
Vietnam, as a result of the war and geography, had in influx of money and resources. With its intelligence, it has progressed at a rapid pace it can handle properly. Laos is at a huge disadvantage geographically, but it understands its potential in the tourism industry and has the wisdom to progress at a pace it can handle. Cambodia also sees its potential in the tourism industry. Plus, it is geographically better off than Laos since it sits between two well-developed countries (Thailand and Vietnam) and has a small coastline. However, it is progressing at a pace that the people are having a hard time handling. The education and guidance isn't there. There is an attitude of get what you can while you can.
This is all a result of Pol Pot’s efforts to ‘cleanse’ the country of approximately 2.5 million people. It is a very sad reality and hard to know where to begin to fix it.
We hop back in the tuk-tuk and head back to the hotel area. A quick bite to eat and we are in for the night. Certainly one of the heaviest days we have had on the trip.
Solemnly yours,
Kevin
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