PHNOM PENH – DESPAIRING OF HUMANITY

HEADING TO CAMBODIA

As instructed by the dice, I took a flight from Bangkok to Phnom Penh.

I was travelling solo again and decided to go back to hostel accommodation. I was staying at a place called Onederz hostel. A great place and in a nice location near the river and the night market.

The staff here were really friendly and made me feel at home right away. I got a snap of one of the guys who worked here, modelling the dice.

That first evening I had a look around town, grabbed a bite to eat and had a few local beers, to settle into the place.

My first impressions were that the town had a bit of a seedy feel to it. There was certainly the potential of being a victim of scammers or pickpockets, so I kept my wits about me. There was constant harassment to buy something, get a massage or take a tuk-tuk somewhere. Usual Southeast Asian fare.

Cambodia is clearly a very poor country. I was shocked to see adults and their children sleeping openly on the street. A sad sight indeed.

THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE

I’ll preface this to say that, if you’re not aware of what went on during the Cambodian Genocide then you might find this post difficult to read, but I think it’s important to cover this.

I am disappointed in myself for not being aware of quite how horrific this time was for Cambodia and I wasn’t really expecting the level of horror that I was exposed to in my time in Phnom Penh. It weighed heavily, but I’m glad that I experienced this.

Ready? Read on.

 

WALKING THE GRID – HEADING TO THE GENOCIDE MUSEUM

The Genocide Museum of Phnom Penh was around 40 minutes walk from the hostel, so rather than take a tuk-tuk I thought I’d take a walk there and take in the sights of some of Phnom Penh.

Here’s some snaps from the walk, which will hopefully give you a feel for the town.

A BRIEF RECAP ON SOME HISTORY

Before I get to the museum itself, I think it’s important to give some background on; what the sequence of events were that led to the Cambodian Genocide, who the Khmer Rouge were and what their goals were.

 

THE MILITARY COUP

Cambodia gained its independence from France in 1953, following almost 100 years under colonist rule.

Soon after; during the Vietnam war, the Cambodian Prime Minister at the time -Norodom Sihanouk – took a stance of neutrality, siding neither with North or South Vietnam.

Sihanouk was ousted by a military coup in 1970, led by his own Cambodian General Lon Nol, who then became President of the new Khmer Republic.

Sihanouk, along with his loyal followers, joined forces with a guerrilla organisation known as the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot.

A civil war ensued and in April 1975 the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh and were victorious in overthrowing Lon Nol and the Khmer Republic.

 

THE KHMER ROUGE

Pol Pot, and the Khmer Rouge had a social policy of working towards a purely agrarian society. A classless society of people removed from urban areas and forced into agricultural communes.

It was a small movement at first, but new people were constantly being recruited. Cambodians generally had grown disenchanted with Western philosophies, due in large part to the heavy US bombardment of the country, during the Vietnam war.

The radical views of the Khmer Rouge included isolating the country from all foreign influences. They abolished all forms of finance and currency. They outlawed religion entirely and either closed temples, schools, hospitals and factories or turned them into prisons.

The Khmer Rouge confiscated all private property and moved civilians from urban areas to farms where they were forced to carry out manual labour.

Many happily obliged with this; being told that they were only being moved a couple of miles away and would return in a few days. The reasons they were given were that there was a threat of American bombing.

Anyone that resisted had their houses burnt to the ground and were killed on the spot.

Those that agreed were forced to work in appalling conditions. Working excessive hours with little food and rest.

This in itself resulted in a heavy number of fatalities.

 

ENEMIES OF THE KHMER ROUGE

The Khmer Rouge arrested, tortured and finally killed anyone that they considered to be their enemy.

An enemy was determined based on the following:

• Affiliation with the former government or foreign government
• A professional or intellectual – basically anyone with an education, or who looked intelligent. If you wore glasses, you’d had it
• Any ethnic minority – consisting of Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Muslims or Buddhist monks
• Anyone unable or willing to work

The prison of Tuol Sleng was one such prison where these ‘enemies’ were detained.

TUOL SLENG GENOCIDE MUSEUM – PRISON S-21

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, is one of 158 prison camps set up during the Cambodian Genocide.

It was previously a school and was converted into a prison by the Khmer Rouge regime.

The prison remains, in large part, as it was when it was found in 1979, which adds to the shock factor when visiting.

When I arrived I purchased my ticket and opted for the additional audio guide, which explains the history of each area of the prison. I highly recommend opting for this, but the content is quite horrific.

 

At the start of the tour I noticed this:

I can’t believe people would be disrespectful enough to play ‘Pokemon Go’ here!

 

DISCOVERING THE PRISON

The prison was found by the invading Vietnamese army in 1979. When they arrived, the prison had been abandoned with 14 remaining prisoners left behind, mutilated. They could not be identified.

This monument of 14 graves was created to honour them.

The 14 remaining prisoners had been found dead, shackled to iron beds. The invading Vietnamese had documented what they had found and these pictures still remain on show.

As do the beds they were shackled to:

The munitions box you see on the bed above was what the inmates had for toilet facilities.

 

LIFE IN THE PRISON

Upon arrival, prisoners were photographed and given a number. They were not referred to by name. All part of the dehumanising process.

The prisoners would be either put into individual tiny cells and shackled to the walls, or packed into mass cells and shackled to each other, as shown in this depiction:

The prisoners were fed only a couple of spoons of soup twice a day and resorted to eating insects which were found crawling in their cells.

You’ll notice here the holes in the walls, marking a clear path through to all cells.

The Khmer Rouge smashed down the walls so that they could easily keep their eyes and ears on all inmates.

The prisoners had to live by some very strict rules, or there were harsh punishments to be dished out. This signpost shows the rules:

 

FALSE CONFESSIONS

After a few days of incarceration the prisoners were taken for interrogation and were tortured until they confessed to crimes they didn’t commit.

Some of the torture is beyond what I could imagine.

The below text is taken from Wikipedia, but is certainly valid based on what I heard at the museum:

“Prisoners were routinely beaten and tortured with electric shocks, searing hot metal instruments and hanging, as well as through the use of various other devices. Some prisoners were cut with knives or suffocated with plastic bags. Other methods for generating confessions included pulling out fingernails while pouring alcohol on the wounds, holding prisoners’ heads under water, and the use of the waterboarding technique.

Although many prisoners died from this kind of abuse, killing them outright was discouraged, since the Khmer Rouge needed their confessions. The “Medical Unit” at Tuol Sleng, however, did kill at least 100 prisoners by bleeding them to death. Medical experiments were performed on certain prisoners. Inmates were sliced open and had organs removed with no anaesthetic. Others were attached to intravenous pumps and every drop of blood was drained from their bodies to see how long they could survive. The most difficult prisoners were skinned alive.”

There were many depictions in the museum of such torture, painted by one of the prison’s survivors:

On the walk around the museum, I listened to an audio clip of the brother of Kerry Hamill – a man from New Zealand who was held captive in S-21. The audio clip was from the war crimes trials and Kerry’s brother recounts the details of his brother’s confessional letter which he was forced to write and admit to crimes that he wasn’t guilty of.

Even through this torture he’d maintained his sense of humour and had written that he worked for the CIA and that Colonel Sanders (of KFC fame) was his superior. He also cryptically included the names of family members. His way of saying goodbye. This brought a tear to my eye.

 

THE GALLOWS

One of the torture devices was still on show at the museum.

This construction was known as ‘the gallows’. Inmates weren’t hung here, but they were strapped up by their ankles and pulled up above the ground with their heads hanging down until they passed out. Upon passing out they would be plunged into one of the pots shown here, which were filled with human waste. This would wake them up and the process would be repeated. Unbelievable.

 

Here’s some more pictures from the museum:

 

HOW MANY PRISONERS PASSED THROUGH THESE WALLS?

It’s unknown exactly how many prisoners were detained in this prison from 1975 – 1979, but estimates range up to 20,000.

At any one time there could be up to 1,500 prisoners held at S-21 and after they had ‘confessed’ to their crimes they would be taken to the ‘killing fields’.

My visit to S-21 prison had hit me hard. I felt it was important to visit the Killing Fields before I left Phnom Penh, but I’d leave that for the following day.

With a heavy heart I took a tuk-tuk back to the hostel.

 

THE KILLING FIELDS

The next morning, with the memory of the S-21 prison fresh in my mind, I got up early and got a tuk-tuk to the Killing Fields of Phnom Penh.

This was similar to the museum in that you could use an audio guide which would walk you through the details of what happened at specific sights.

A lot of what previously existed at this site had been removed, unlike the prison, but the descriptions were harrowing enough!

Upon arrival, the first thing that I saw was the genocide memorial. A beautiful building, with Buddhist architecture, but the content of which are horrifying. We’ll get to that.

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE KILLING FIELDS?

Prisoners from S-21 were bound, blindfolded and transported to Choeung Ek – previously a peaceful orchard, where they were brutally slain and disposed of in mass graves.

The methods to kill the prisoners here varied, but the Khmer Rouge guards would avoid using bullets as they were too expensive.

As many as 20,000 people were killed at this site alone; including women and children and this was just one of nearly 400 sites.

It is estimated, although not known, that up to 3 million people out of a population of 8 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge regime.

I can’t get my head around that number.

 

WALKING AROUND THE KILLING FIELDS

Knowing what happened at Choeung Ek, here’s some further detail of what is on display at the site.

This innocent-looking sugar palm tree has very sharp bark which peels away from the trunk.

Apparently prisoners had their throats slit, against this tree, using this bark as a weapon.

 

THE LAKE

I can imagine that this site was originally quite beautiful. There is a large lake within the area, which you can walk around to get away from the horror of the rest of the site.

MASS GRAVES

There were a number of mass grave sites still on display:

Visitors had marked the fences of these mass grave sites with bracelets as a mark of respect:

 

THE KILLING TREE

The most horrendous thing that I heard on my visit to the killing fields was regarding the killing tree:

This tree got its name, because when the site was discovered it was covered with blood and bone fragments. Apparently children were taken from their mothers, grabbed by the ankles and swung face first into the tree until they were dead, at which point they were thrown naked into the mass grave by the side of it.

The children’s mothers were then slain and thrown in the pit with the children’s bodies.

Hellish.

 

THE MAGIC TREE

This tree was known as the magic tree. A loudspeaker was placed within its branches and used to drown out the sound of the cries from victims.

 

THE MEMORIAL STUPA

Housed within the memorial stupa are the skulls of around 8,000 victims, set over 17 floors.

An horrific, but important reminder of what happened at this site.

LEAVING PHNOM PENH

Seeing the genocide museum and killing fields was a very emotional experience and one that left an impression on me.

I couldn’t believe that humans are capable of such atrocities and it saddens me to my core that these things happened to such innocent people.

I’m glad I’ve learnt about this, but at the same time I have a heavy heart and despair for humanity.

It was time to move on and hopefully onto happier scenes.

Onto Siem Reap.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and found it informative, if very morbid. Please share any thoughts in the comments box at the bottom of the page.