Phnom Penh – a City Hidden in History

Phnom Penh

It’s been a week since leaving Phnom Penh and still, my recollection of this city is so fresh in my mind. The USA style organisation of the streets, the pretty walk along the Ton Saple River (a river that changes directions depending on whether it’s wet or dry season), the great choice of restaurants, the busy night market, the malls… But, it is not for any of these aforementioned reasons that my experience in the capital of Cambodia was so memorable.

The Killing Fields is something most are aware of in Cambodia. I myself, have said for years that I wanted to visit and to experience them – upon arrival in Cambodia I shamefully realised that I had absolutely no idea what they signified nor the history attached.

We rented an apartment through Airbnb, deciding that we wanted to take a few days to fend for ourselves for at least a couple of meals a day. The apartment was gorgeous & conveniently located right next to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a museum we’d also been advised was a must when in Phnom Penh.

Tuol Sleng / S-21

As it was so close, we visited Tuol Sleng first. Quickly realising that this wasn’t like any other museum we had ever visited. Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum – formally known as S-21, formally formally known as Tuol Svay Prey High School, was used during Pol Pot’s reign in the 70’s as a super-secret prison in which thousands of innocent people were tortured for their non-existing confessions. Their crimes? Being intellectual, educated or a person of status. The country rid itself of its artists, its entrepreneurs, its doctors, its monks… If you could read and write, you were a threat.

We used the audio guide to accompany us around the now peaceful grounds of Tuol Sleng, all the while learning of the horrors that had happened here during 1975-1979, right under our feet. We observed the rooms innocents were interrogated in, held until they ‘confessed’. Stood in the tiny makeshift prison cells that the accused were kept in. Saw harrowing images of those tortured and killed. Saw the faces of the killers, learned about their… vision.

History

If you’re as uninformed as I was, let me fill you in on the basics. Pol Pots envisioned that Cambodia would be the world leader in rice production. He was pro-communism and wanted rid of the city people. He wanted the entire population of Cambodia to live as ‘base people’. Base people were basically, people of the land. The people who lived in modest huts, planted and harvested rice, caught fish and kept livestock. Obviously, Pol Pots couldn’t see this plan through alone… Enter, The Khmer Rouge, or as they called themselves, The Organisation.

The Khmer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge was largely made up of young boys and girls, teenagers who had been picked up from rural towns. For the uneducated youths, this opportunity originally presented itself as an easier life, holding a gun and following orders than the alternative, a life of farming. Wearing their uniform of all black, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh in 1975, a presence that was welcomed. The Revolutionaries were here! But within hours, residents of Phnom Penh began to question the morality of the organisation as they were kicked out of their homes. Pushed to the edge of the city and then further.

What ensued was years of trauma for an entire country. City people were pushed further and further out to the rural towns of Cambodia and put to work in the fields or building embankments. Everything was to be shared. Clothes were to be died black. Rations were to be provided, meagre portions that did nothing to stave the appetite of the hard workers. People died of exhaustion, hunger, the elements. The Khmer Rouge called on those who could read and write to help them rebuild the country. Those who stepped forward were never seen again. With no exact figure, it is estimated that Cambodia lost one-third of its population during those 4 years.

The Killing Fields

We visited the Killing Fields the following day, again the audio tour filling us in on more heart-breaking details. Where S-21 had educated us on why and where the people were held captive, the Killing Fields informed us on the sad fate of those that were found guilty of their ‘crimes’.

The Choeung EK Genocidal Centre is one of over 300 killing fields in Cambodia. Walking into the grounds a large Memorial Stupa sits in the middle, filled with skulls. The grounds are covered in fruit trees, separated by large mass graves. A Large lake runs adjacent to the grounds, bodies of those not yet found, left in peace. Even now after almost 40 years, new bone fragments and pieces of clothing emerge when the rainy season pours down.

The killing fields is an emotional experience, as you’re reminded that the ground your standing on was the last ground so many stood on, as you learn the cruel details of their final moments.

As upsetting as both of these experiences was, they have both made me learn and feel more than anything we have done on our trip so far. And that’s the idea, Cambodia wants you to know, to learn, to remember so that nothing this terrible can ever happen again.

But I do not condemn the people who tortured me. If they were still alive today and if they came to me, would I still be angry with them? No. Because they were not seniors and they were doing what they had to do at the time. There’s a saying in the Khmer language: ‘If a mad dog bites you, don’t bite it back.’ If you do, it means you are mad, too.

-Chum Mey, a survivor of S-21. Extract from his book ‘Survivor’.

See It With Your Own Eyes: [yasr_overall_rating]