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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Today was a more somber travel day. We spent the morning at sites where the Khmer Rouge tortured and murdered many thousands of Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. Paul and I think it is important to see sites like this around the world because too many people don’t know about this kind of history or claim that these evil things never happened.

The Khmer Rouge was a communist movement in Cambodia that overthrew the government in 1975. It was let by Pol Pot, a Cambodian who had been educated in France and was introduced to communism as a young man. He spread his movement largely through the rural populations, telling them that the rich, educated, city-dwellers, and foreigners were the cause of their problems. When he took over, the Khmer Rouge literally evacuated the cities and moved all of those residents to work fields in the country. Many died of starvation, lack of medical care, or from being worked to death in the fields.

Anyone who was educated or who had worked for the prior government was executed, often along with all of their family members. Many were first tortured in detention centers, like S-21 that we visited today. S-21 was originally a high school in Phnom Penh, but was converted to a prison that is now known as Tuol Sleng. Somewhere between 17,000 and 20,0000 prisoners were held here, 1,000-1,500 at a time. They would be tortured, usually coerced into saying they worked for the CIA or KGB, and then executed for their “crimes.” They also were tortured until they named friends and family who were also involved in these “crimes,” leading to more arrests.

There were 12 known survivors, some of whom were children found when the prison was liberated by the Vietnamese. When those in charge of the prison found out that the Vietnamese were close, they began executing prisoners “early.” They got to 14 before the Vietnamese arrived. We were told that those 14 were still bleeding when the Vietnamese soldiers arrived. They were buried on site and the graves are marked. Another 7 men slated to be executed were rescued…2 of these men were there at the site today. They each have written a book about their experiences and they have testified at the ongoing trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders. We got to listen to the story of Chum Mey, who himself survived but lost his wife and children.

The genocide museum at Tuol Sleng shows how the classrooms were converted into prison cells. There are rooms after rooms with walls covered with photographs taken of each of the prisoners. Once prisoners “confessed” they were usually taken to the Killing Fields for execution. We went to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. At this site, thousands of adults and children were executed and put in mass graves. Some have been excavated and the bones placed in ossuaries and are on display, most in a memorial. Walking around you can see bones and clothing that are gradually being exposed as the ground is eroded away. Some of the areas are marked with thousands of colorful bracelets, left as a reminder of the horrors that happened there.

If you’d like some additional perspective of living through the Khmer Rouge I strongly recommend Luong Ung’s book “First They Killed My Father.” She was 5 when the Khmer Rouge took over and many of her family members were killed by the Khmer Rouge. It’s a quick read or audio book.

After lunch, we had more normal excursions, seeing the Royal Palace and grounds and to a museum that contained many ancient artifacts. The Royal Palace is a large complex that includes the home of the king and his family. The buildings are in a traditional architectural style and are mostly painted gold. They have some of the royal artifacts on display. There also is a Silver Pagoda which has a floor made of silver tiles. There also was a gold and diamond full sized Buddha. Breathtaking. Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures in some of these buildings. We ended up at the National Museum where they have artifacts from the Angkor Wat and surrounding temples along with other older and newer artifacts. They also had a nice garden with koi and lotus flowers.

After dinner we headed back into town to go to the night market. This is a local, and not truly tourist, market that operates from about 5-10 pm. Every day each of the vendors has to set up and then completely dismantle their booths. The market was full of locals and there were many food booths along with a local band trying to sing. We could see lightning around us, but managed to make it back to the boat before the rain came, so much better luck than last night.

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