Encountering Cambodia's Horrific History

We left Siem Reap for another intimate experience with the pothole filled roads of Cambodia. We arrived in Phnom Penh eight exhausting hours later. When we wondered into our guesthouse we ran into a number of people from our slow boat trip in Laos. The backpacker circuit of South East Asia is a very small place evidently.

This is a very difficult entry for me to write. It is nearly impossible to describe how it felt to visit places where such a horrific part of Cambodia's history took place.

During the 1970’s Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge are thought to have tortured up to 3 million people or about one third of the population at the time. They particularly targeted people with education or artistic individuals of any type. Basically the Khmer Rouge feared anyone considered to be 'free thinkers' that might corrupt the minds of the Cambodian people. Families were split apart and sent to work camps throughout the countryside. The cities were deserted because the Khmer Rouge saw high population densities as a forum where people could freely exchange knowledge and ideas. Technological advancement of any sort was viewed as the “Americanization” of their society and was resultantly prohibited.

We started out that day by visiting Toul Sleng Musuem. The grounds were once a school that had been converted into a prison during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Rooms used as torture cells were left as they had been at the time complete chains and blood stains on the floors. Several rooms contained picture after picture of the prisoners staring solemnly into the lens. One display showed current photographs of people that had worked at the prison. Their recent colour photos hung next to black and white pictures taken 30 years ago. Comments about their current situation stated that most of the individuals are trying everyday to deal with the heinous acts they had committed. It was heart wrenching that these were simply normal people forced into a situation of fear in which they had to either kill or be killed themselves.

The most infuriating part of the museum was the room explaining what had become of Pol Pot and the other senior members of the Khmer Rouge. These monsters were never held accountable for their crimes and instead were allowed to live out the remainder of the lives unpunished.

Next we drove outside the city to Choeung Ek, a place known as the killing fields. This was where countless individuals were taken to be executed and buried in mass graves. A memorial stands in the middle of the field housing clothing and bones excavated in the graves.

As was the case everywhere we went in Cambodia we were surrounded by children trying to sell us trinkets. I had to wonder if they understood the horrors that had transpired in this field where they were playing and laughing

Overall the day was emotionally draining. That afternoon, mostly in a daze, we wandered around the city. In a pleasant change of pace that evening at our guesthouse some children came to perform traditional Cambodian dances. Money collected during the performance is used to support children whose parents have been killed by landmines.

Even in the beauty and innocence of children dancing I realized that the horrible legacy of the Khmer Rouge will linger on for many generations.

After my visit to Phnom Penh I read a book entitled First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung. I would highly recommend it if you are interested in this period of Cambodia’s history.

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