Day 3-4: Phnom Penh - Killing Fields and S-21

Day 3:  Day 3 we travelled by caravan buses from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.  It took about 6 hours.  Seeing the flooded lands and homes was depressing.  Many people had to have their cattle out on the street.  Even though some houses were on stilts the water was still high.  Families usually have their live stock under the house and cook under the house.

Day 4: Afternoon: the Killing Fields and S-21

Taken from Phnom Penh Visitor’s Guide (www.canbypublications.com):  “From April 17, 1975 until January 7, 1979, the brutal, ultra-Communist Khmer Rouge regime controlled the whole of Cambodia, then known as ‘Democratic Kampuchea.’ The Khmer Rouge was headed by Saloth Sar, who went by the nom de guerre Pol Pot.  During their short reign, between one and two and a half million Cambodians perished, some killed outright, others dying from disease, malnutrition, neglect and mistreatment… though the Khmer Rouge were driven from power in 1979, they retreated to the mountains and border areas, persisting until their final defeat and dissolution in 1998…. Pol Pot died in 1998, never having faced justice.”

Well this was a depressing day.  We solemnly walked along dirt paths through overgrown grass and weeds which now covered the many ditches which too recently held Cambodian bodies.  We each had a headphone to listen to the awful, heart-breaking stories of the people brutally executed at this killing field called Choeung Ek.  More than 17,000 men, women and children were killed here under the Khmer rouge regime (1975-1979).    

Next we toured Toul Sleng Genocide Museum, aka S-21.  Our tour guide was a 42 year old woman whom was 8 years old was ordered out of Phnom Penh and was sent to a small town.  Her father and brothers were murdered and her and her mother walked for 3 days until they reached Vietnam.  She lived there until she was then sent back to Cambodia.

Before 1975, Toul Sleng was a high school but in 1975 when the Khmer rouge came into power they turned it into the S-21 prison and interrogation facility.  Those who were educated or had some connections were tortured to extract the desired confessions and then executed.

2 of the 7 survivors of Toul Sleng are still alive today and one of them was at the museum while I was there – Mr. Chum Mey.

There are many books one can read to learn more about this brutal genocide.  The one I am reading right now is called First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung and another one is Voices of S-21 by David Chandler.

Thought of the Day:  ~What is so surreal is that I was alive at this time – their horrible history was really not that long ago.~