So to Cambodia and Phnom Pen. The first thing you see when you get into Cambodia is a whole string of casinos, which us a bit odd as since then I've realized not many here will be able to throw their money away in a casino. The drive from the border to the capital is about 200 kms but our guide told us it would take 4 hours as the road "isn't quite finished". He wasn't kidding. Firstly they have yet to build a bridge over the Mekong so you have to get a ferry. Now consider that this is THE main road in the country, National Highway 1, the trans-Asia highway. And they're missing a bridge. It's like having to stop on the M4 at Reading to wait for a 20 vehicle cross river ferry. This is minor handicap to say the least but it did give us a taste of being in a zoo. The locals were very interested in us, faces pressed to the glass kind of interested. Disconcerting. Not as disconcerting as the last 15kms of the road though. It really isn't finished. It's not like there's a contraflow or anything, there's just no road. At all. We spent probably 45 minutes bumping over two lane dirt tracks trying not to have a collision with the many motorbikes, push bikes and massively expensive 4x4s that all the "businessmen" drive. This was the first clue that Cambodia really has some problems.
It was over dinner that we learned a little of the history here. Our guide was telling us about his experiences under the Khymer Rouge. He lost 50 members of his family and was two days from being sent to certain death in the eastern famine zone. Only the fact that his brother in law was dying in hospital, and the commune leader let them wait for him, saved him and his sister. It's calculated that the Khymer Rouge killed 2,000,000 people in their time in power. That's only 3 years 8 months and 12 days. My mind cannot comprehend that. Neither the number (about a third of the population) nor the fact that people could do it to each other. The level of control Pol Pot and his fellow murders exerted over the population is incredible. Everyone was watching everyone else and anyone could be killed at a moments notice for any infraction, real or imagined. The killing started immediately too, as soon as the KR took Phnom Pen they emptied the city and arrested thousands.
The place the arrestees were taken was called S21 and we went the next day. This was a high school turned into a prison but is basically a torture centre and death camp. If you went in you never went out alive. Out of possibly 20,000 plus inmates there were 7 survivors. I don't believe in ghosts or spirits or auras but Tuol Sleng Prison has some very, very bad vibes. There are displays of the prisoners arrest pictures and many are just children. The KR killed the whole family if one member was found 'guilty'. Children and babies were not spared. What makes it more horrifying, if that's possible, is that most of the KR soldiers were barely more than children themselves. Pol Pot was a big fan of brainwashing kids, he was a high school teacher after all. Anyone in Cambodia who was remotely intellectual or educated was guaranteed a certain death, ironic as Pol Pot himself received his education free of charge in France. He never passed the final exams though and this may explain his psychopathic dislike of the educated. The killing was totally indiscriminate however, it was used as a tool of control and as a means to an end, but no one seems to be able to say what that end was. We were lucky enough to meet in of the survivors though, and when I find his card I'll update this to give him credit, and he was a lovely man. He survived because he was a sewing machine repairman and was thus useful to the party. However it was also the reason he was arrested. If you broke needle while you were making the standard black suit you were accused of being an FBI spy and arrested. One of his co-workers gave his name under torture and he was arrested. I think it shows the level of madness that you could be killed for breaking a sewing machine needle. There is still blood on the ceiling of the cells to prove it.
Once you'd admitted your "crimes" under torture you were moved to the killing fields. This was our next port of call and was pretty traumatic. There is a 8 storey tall memorial stupa.
It is full of skulls.
Not all the skulls, just some. At this single place they've found over 20,000 people in mass graves. Babies were killed by having their heads smashed against a tree. KR troops who were destined to die were beheaded and their heads discarded. It is simply one of the most awful, moving and tragic places I've ever been. There are still bones and pieces of cloth coming out of the ground in the wet season. There are teeth still lying on the path.
What amazes me most about this is that no one seems bitter or calling for revenge. Pol Pot died under house arrest in 1998 and only five other leaders of the KR will likely stand trial. One, the commandant of S21, is serving 30 years. I can only guess people just want to get on with their lives and try to forget. Many if the former KR are now members of the government after 'coming across' and the whole period is universally referred to as the Pol Pot Regime. It seems it's often best to blame one person for the collective madness and then move on (see Nazism and Stalinism).
Every part of Cambodian life was affected the the Khymer Rouge period and the repercussions are still here. All the doctors were killed, all the engineers, teachers, architects, bankers, builders and so on and so in. It's why the road isn't finished. It's why all the hospitals are run by NGOs. The population was decimated so that now 60% are under 21. Cultural treasures and knowledge were lost or destroyed. Everywhere we've been there have been holes in the fabric or story of the places. Always the reason given is "under the Khymer Rouge...".
However I think the country will pull through. The poverty here is startling in it's depth but there are many good people trying to help and the Cambodians are nothing if not resilient. we went for dinner in the evening to a restaurant called Friends, run to teach rescued street kids to cook and get jobs in the hospitality industry. The food was fantastic, the students were happy and it was all started by an Aussie NGO.
I felt ridiculously proud of my adopted countrymen and left the biggest tip of my life.
I just hope it helps.
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