Today we visited two sites that played an important part in Cambodia's past - The Choeung Ek Killing Field and the infamous Khmer Rough prison S-21. It was a very emotional experience, and some of the facts can be disturbing, so we thought instead of recapping the day we would give a brief history and then each share our thoughts.
A Brief History
In April 1975 the Khmer Rouge marched into the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Phen, marking the end of civil war and the fall of the previous US backed government. The Khmer Rouge were officially known as the Communist Party of Kampuchea and wanted to liberate Cambodia by freeing it from western ties and making it a self-sufficient agrarian state. The people originally greeted them with cheers, but that quickly changed when they emptied the cities, forced everyone to work on farms for unbearably long hours, gave them little food, and killed anyone that they thought was "capitalist". This included anyone that worked for the previous government in any form, anyone that was educated, anyone foreign or not full blooded Khmer, anyone religious, or anyone who stood against them. They wanted to rebuild society to fit their standards. They closed schools, hospitals, public services, and eliminated currency. The Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia until they were overthrown by the Vietnamese in 1979. During these 4 years, an estimated 2 million people were killed out of a population of 7 million.
The Choeung Ek Killing Field is outside of Phnom Phen and the most famous out of the 388 in Cambodia. There were around 20,000 people killed here during the Khmer Rouge years. Today there is a memorial at the site containing the skulls, bones, and some of the clothing of the 8,985 victims that have been unearthed. The remaining victims remain buried in mass graves that have not been excavated. The Khmer Rouge tried to hide sites like this while they were in power, and it was first found by farmers returning to their homes after Vietnamese took over.
S-21 was a former high school turned into a prison by the Khmer Rouge. People were tortured, forced to write a "confession", and then executed. They kept extensive records and every new prisoner was photographed. Many of these photos are on display at the site today. Out of the estimated 17,000 people that came through the prison, 7 survived. The prison was discovered when the Vietnamese came into the city in 1979. It was later turned into a museum.
If you would like to see pictures from these sites, Click Here. Some of them are a bit graphic and we tried to add captions to give a little more information than we posted here. Also, if you would like to read more about what it was like during the Khmer Rouge period, we recommend reading "First they killed my Father". It is very sad book, but does a great job of telling the story through the eyes of a child that lived it.
Stephanie's Journal
It is hard for me to accept the things that I have seen today. How can one human being do such horrible things to another human being? Even though I have read about it, seen the people who lived through it, and visited the sites where it happened, it is still hard for me to believe it. At a glance, the killing field looks like a peaceful place. There are butterfly's in the air and flowers cover the mass graves. But if I stood here just 30 years ago I would have seen unimaginable things being done...to people who had done nothing wrong. Perhaps they were a doctor, a teacher, a police officer, educated, had lived in the city, had light skin, soft hands, or wore glasses. That's all it took. The bones that I see and the clothing scraps sticking out of the ground are from real people that died where I am standing. It is a hard thing for me to accept.
When we visit S-21 the pictures are haunting. There are so many faces - old, young, smiling, frightened, healthy, starved, weak...men and women, boys and girls. So many faces. I cannot bear to see the pictures of the kids. The thought just keeps screaming through my mind "But they are only children!" There are pictures of mothers holding infants. It breaks my heart. I cannot understand it. I see a picture that reminds me of my brother when he was a kid and I can't look at them any longer. I want to run from this place and put it out of my mind.
But running and forgetting is never a good thing to do. However hard it was, I am glad that I have seen what I have seen today. Outside S-21 these words are posted - "Keeping the memory of the atrocities committed on Cambodian soil alive is the key to build a new, strong, and just state. Furthermore, making the crimes of the inhuman regime of Khmer Rouge public plays a crucial role in preventing a new Pol Pot from emerging in the lands of Angor or anywhere on Earth." I pray this is true. I pray that we never forget, that we have compassion, that we help those who need help, that we learn from the past, that we don't ignore the suffering of others, that we do not always do what is easy, but that we do what is right.
Adam's Journal
It's impossible to translate an experience like visiting the Killing Fields and S-21 prison to words. There are so many emotions and questions that swirl through your head that you can't even keep track of all of them. While we were at the Killing Fields, one part of me was angry that such an "attraction" even exists. Why put these people's skulls, bones, and clothing out for display so that tourists can snap their picture in front of them? How could you let a human being's tooth sit in the dirt for 30 years and not at least move it from the path? Why not just cover the whole thing with dirt and let these poor, tortured souls have some peace? But then the other side of me knows why. The people need to be remembered. The crimes need to be remembered. As startling of an image as it may be to see a huge monument filled with thousands of human skulls, maybe we need this strong of an image to truly learn from the past. Whenever the topic of the Holocaust comes up, Steph and I often discuss how it happened only 70 years ago. It's not that long ago. But these mass murders were only 30 years ago. How could this happen, again? Could people really not know what is going on? Where was the US? Where was the UN? We wouldn't have stood for this if it happened today, right? Then you realize what you hear about Darfur. How you brush it aside or change the channel. Out of sight, out of mind. Not my problem. Sure, there are countless problems in this world and you can't help everybody. But when you're talking about millions of innocent people being tortured, enslaved, murdered, how can we just look the other way? I do it. We all do it. Maybe there is nothing we can do, but we could at least write a letter to our government, donate some money to the Red Cross, something. Is 'I didn't know' a good enough excuse for you? It's not for me, not anymore.
As you walk through the S-21 prison, they have hundreds upon hundreds of mugshots of the prisoners that came through here. You look at face after face and try to make yourself feel what these people went through. I was having a hard time seeing much more than just a mugshot until I came upon a picture of a young boy with an expressionless face but whose eyes show the sorrow and confusion that he must have been feeling at that moment. Then I saw that on the corner of the frame is another boy, about the same age, standing there blindfolded. The terror that that boy must have been feeling really hit me. I saw a lot of gruesome images and heartbreaking scenes today, but the image of that one boy - blindfolded, scared, separated from his parents, completely innocent, who probably died within a week - really stuck with me. It's so frustrating because there are so many unanswerable questions - who could have done such a thing? How does a country, an economy, individual people recover from something like this? The teachers, lawyers, doctors, government employees, and anybody else who was educated or previously in a position of power were the first to be killed. Cruelly, the reminders of war are everywhere in Cambodia as you constantly see armless, legless, blind people who were maimed by landmines. So what do you take away from visiting places like these? That, I don't even know. Sadness, compassion, anger. At the very least I can be reminded how lucky I am to have the life that I do, but I hope to gain more than that. As much as I want to forget the things I saw and heard, I hope to never forget and when we say "never again will we let this happen," I hope we actually mean it this time.
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