The Killing Fields and Tuoi Sleng (Genocide Museum) of Cambodia
A long way back to Phnom Penh on the same bumpy roads with Anne very sick, Gina and Jeremy not feeling great. There would be lots of stops for sick ones to do what they had to do. Eak told us a little about schooling in Cambodia. Not compulsory but free. Most of the time, teachers charge the children a small fee because they only earn around $40 a month and consider themselves underpaid. The Government is trying to stamp this out but very difficult to do. There are two different classes each day. You either attend from 7-11 am, or 1-5 pm. If they can afford it, children then take a second private class. School begins at age 6, private kindergarten at age 4 and some children have to walk more than 10k/6.2 miles a day to school.
On the way back, we stopped at the infamous Killing Fields. Between 1975 and 1978, about 17,000 men, women, children and infants (including nine westerners), were detained and tortured at S-21 prison (now Tuoi Sleng Museum). They were then transported to the Killing Fields for extermination to avoid wasting precious bullets.
This particular Killing Field (there are many killing fields in Cambodia) was once an orchard. If anyone found this visit too upsetting, there was no obligation to visit. From the parking lots, you could see the Memoral Stupa, erected in 1988, with over 8,000 skulls, arranged by sex, visible behind clear glass panels.
The remains of 8,985 people were exhumed in 1980 from mass graves in this orchard alone. Forty-three graves were left untouched. Eak said that pieces of bone are still resurfacing after each rainfall. We spent about 45 minutes walking around the Killing Fields with its fragments of human bone and bits of cloth scattered around, and reading the signage. The glass tower filled with human skulls from Pol Pots' atrocities also served to remind everyone of all the horrors still taking place around the world.
From extremely sad to ludicrous. Lunch was at a roadside restaurant in Phnom Penh filled with men workers on their lunch break. Two televisions blaring two different movies and/or music videos. The men were mesmerized by the scantily clad women in the MTV-type videos. Very funny.
Back to extremely distressing, the Tuoi Sleng Genocide Museum. This former High School became the Khmer Rouge's main torture and interrogation center and is also known as S-21. There were four buildings and during 1975-1978, an estimated 10,499 prisoners and additional 2,000 children were held here. We had seen both previously but felt it was important to revisit.
Every prisoner was photographed and detailed biographies were taken. One of the many rules prisoners had to obey was:
I think that says it all.
The average duration in this prison was 2-4 months before those who survived the interrogation were moved to the Killing Fields and exterminated. It is said that out of the 12,000+ people, only seven survived. What is even more chilling? Only FIVE PEOPLE are in prison awaiting trial for Crimes Against Humanity. All the guards and others who helped perpetrate these atrocities are still free!
