I like to travel and learn about other countries, I'd heard of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot and I knew a bit about Cambodia's history when I arrived here; but it wasn't until visiting the Choeung Ek Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng S21 Genocide Museum that the true horror of Cambodia's past really kit home and broke my heart.
In England we don't learn about Asian history; we don't learn about the Asia-Pacific War, or Tiananmen Square, or the Khmer Rouge. Our education is almost solely based on European history, and gives a very one sided view of the world. For that reason, I highly recommend reading a brief history of Cambodia on the Choeung Ek Killing Field's Website.
Choeung Ek Killing Fields
We'd visited a 'killing field' in Siem Reap: a pagoda dedicated to the bodies found in the area and a stupa displaying the skulls and various remains discovered. With that in mind I wasn't prepared for the Choeung Ek Killing Fields 15km outside of Phnom Penh.
At the entrance we were given an audio guide that lead us around the site, most of the buildings were dismantled when the Khmer Rouge were overthrown, but the mass graves are still visible. The audio guide was thorough, detailed and emotional; it gave testimonies from Khmer Rouge soldiers who had murdered people at Choeung Ek, as well of the testimony of victims who had been beaten and raped, who had watched their families be murdered, and who had survived more horror than I could ever imagine.
129 mass graves were discovered at Choeung Ek. 86 have been exhumed, in which the remains of 8,985 people were found. The remaining graves have been left undisturbed. One grave contained women and children, and next to it stood 'the killing tree' against which the soldiers would swing babies by their legs, before throwing them into the soil besides their mothers. One of Pol Pot's motos was that 'in order to remove a tree you must kill all of its roots'; to this end entire families were murdered. Another grave was full of defectors, all decapitated.
If you look at the earth beneath your feet at Choeung Ek you'll see rags emerging from the dirt, caught around plants and tangled around tree roots. These are the clothes of the people buried there. Each month the staff at the site collect bones which have surfaced as the heavy rains disturb the soil.
The pagoda in the center of the site holds the remains of the 8,985 bodies. As I walked around it I saw not the skulls but the faces of the men, women and children who were murdered there. By the time we entered the Choeung Ek museum I had tears rolling down my cheeks as I read about the victims and the perpetrators.
Tuol Sleng S21 Genocide Museum
Formally a high school in Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge converted Tuol Sleng into its most notorious prison. Intellectuals, city dwellers, teachers, foreigners, men, women, children, elderly people, were locked up, tortured and killed at the prison.
When the prison was found by the invading Vietnam forces who had overthrown the Khmer Rouge, the bodies of the final 14 people to be killed at Tuol Sleng were still chained to wrought iron beds in the cells, the wounds from their torture still visible. Those 14 bodies are now buried in the grounds of the prison and photographs are displayed showing them in the state they were discovered.
Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge were meticulous in documenting their victims. As you walk through the prison the walls are lined with mugshots of the prisoners, as well as photographs of them being tortured, and gruesome images of them in death. Each inmate was forced to sign a false confession of the crimes they'd committed: spying for the CIA or the KGB, when in reality the only mistake those people had made was being educated, or being able to speak French, or wearing glasses, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The eyes of the people in the pictures conveyed their fear and misery and as I walked through each room their faces swirled before my eyes.
Outside in the prison grounds sat an elderly man upwards of 70 years of age. He was one of only eight people to survive the prison and he sat there in the shade in front of tour group after tour group to tell his story, to share the horrors of his life so that tourists like me might learn something. I was blown away by his courage; spending his days at the very place where he was imprisoned and tortured. He wasn't angry at all, he didn't talk of revenge. He just wanted to share his story, to share his country's past, so that we might learn not to make the same mistakes again. I cried my eyes out.
Making The Same Mistakes... Again
The Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1973 and overthrew the Khmer Rouge, who went into hiding in the jungle near the Thai boarder. At that time in history The West (the UK, the US and so on) was terrified of communism and America's defeat in Vietnam was still very fresh in everyone's mind. The same countries were also afraid of upsetting China, ally of the Khmer Rouge. For those reasons the UN continued to recognise the Khmer Rouge as the legitimate government of Cambodia for over a decade after they were exiled by the Vietnamese. No western country wanted to be seen supporting Vietnam, even when faced with the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. For almost 15 years our ever-so democratic countries provided aid to the Khmer Rouge while the surviving population of Cambodia starved. It wasn't until 1994 that the Khmer Rouge were finally outlawed. To put that into context; it's like the UN recognising the Nazis as the legitimate government of Europe until the sixties.
It wasn't until 2004 that a high court was established and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge were tried and prosecuted for genocide. Only one of the leaders sentenced by the high court expressed any remorse for the genocide. Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, died peacefully in his home before the court was established. He never faced up to what he had committed.
The important question is, have we - the world- learnt from these mistakes? Well, simply, NO, we have not. Today, as I write, concentration camps exist, men women and children are working in forced labour camps, genocide is being committed, and innocent people are being arrested, tortured and murdered. In North Korea for example, all of the above is happening. Right now. And the USA, England and the United Nations, are doing nothing for fear of upsetting China. Even the South Koreans are apathetic.
As I walked around Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng I couldn't hold back my tears because I'm sure that one day, in 30, 50, 100 years time, tourists like me will be walking around Camp 14 in North Korea, looking at the mass graves, and listening to an audio guide telling them how their countries knew what was happening. And did nothing.
Did 2 million Cambodians die in vain?
How Can You Help?
I feel unbearably tortured knowing that I'm helpless, I can't invade North Korea and take down Kim Jong-Un, I can't actually save the world. But at least I know the truth. Inform yourselves, read, share.
Books/films:
Escape From Camp 14 by Shin Dong-Hyuk
Aquariums of Pyonyang by Kang Chol-Hwan
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