A Somber Stroll Down a Sad Path of History

*****WARNING- THIS POST CONTAINS A SUMMARY OF ACTUAL HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF EVENTS THAT SOME MAY FIND DISTURBING ******

Mass Graves now overgrown ar the Phenom Penh Killing Fields

For our last day in the Kingdom of Cambodia, we took some time to pay tribute to the victims of the genecide cult, the Khmer Rouge.

During the “cleansing” of the newly agricultural communist society (1975-1979) Cambodians who had soft hands (showing they were not farming peasants) intellectuals, creative thinkers, suspected traitors, even people who wore glasses were exterminated in “killing fields”.  Their corpses were shoved into pits and mass graves and left. The reign of the Khmer Rouge ended in a die off of a quarter of the nations population, due to mistreatment of its people on top of over 300 killing fields similar to the one we visited in Phenom Penh.

The faces of S21 prisoners, pictures taken upon their arrival
at the compound.

Pol Pot, a French educated Cambodian communist believer was the head of the Khmer Rouge. His forces grappled with the Cambodian Army, eventually over throwing it and taking over.
On the first day of his take over, the past was erased and with the rising sun began day 1,      year 0.
With in no more than a few days, all major cities were drained of inhabitants, who fled a supposed bomb threat. This was of course a lie, spun to get people out to the country side,
where they where forced to work from dawn to dusk, farming rice. Many lawyers, doctors and teachers from cities were handed shovels and told to begin farming with no experience. There were too many tasks put in front of a small group of  laborers stretched too thin, and rice production fell behind schedule. Supervisors were afraid to admit this to higher ups and instead made up for the loss by taking food away from people in the fields and selling it. This caused masses to starve to death or die of exhaustion.

Tourture cells of S21 prison

     Pol Pot became paranoid and everything got worse. Suspected criminals were dragged to S21 prison, a school in Phenom Penh transformed into a torture center. They endured agonizing  punishments and horrific atrocities until they gave names of other traitors and told the truth. Those who didn’t die in the process “confessed” to working for the KGB and the CIA, organizations they had never heard of. The names jerked out of prisoners like their finger and toe nails then brought new innocents in in droves, all to eventually give more names, in a vicious cycle. The worst part was that not just men but women, teenagers and young children suffered within the complex.  This was supported with common use if propaganda such as “to remove grass you must kill the root” and “having you is no gain, losing you is no loss”.  Expressions like these illistrate the absence of humanity.  Everyone “confessed” during torture eventually.

Skulls of Killing Field Victims in a memorial. This image shows 2 of 17 levels in the building 

Tiny cells of S21 where according to one of
the rare survivors he had to lay unmoving
for 12 days and 12 nights,
asking guards for permission to even roll over

Survivors in S21 were transfured to “new housing” on the otherside of town, to the Killing Fields, where they were brutally murdered. National tunes were blared from tin speakers hanging in the “magic tree” to cover up screams. Today you can see scraps of clothing and bone fragments brought to the surface by shifting soil in those infamous pits, a present reminder of the horrors and blood that once soaked Cambodian soil.

We understand this is a sensitive topic but we think people should be aware of the history of this country. This seemed to be the message around both the Killing Fields and S21 when we visited. We were to learn of the past, respect those who died and then focus on what is to come. Cambodia as a country has rebounded astonishingly quickly from the Khmer Rouge reign. Cambodia today is an upbeat, youthful nation with a bright future, despite its horrific past.