S21 & Killing fields

This is a slightly different post we took no photos today as it seemed to be the wrong thing however I will describe the events of the day and what we saw.
This gets very graphic in parts so if you do not wish to read do not feel compelled.

Today we went to S21 (The torture camp/ prison for the Khmer Rouge) we took a Audio tour that explained all the atrocities that happened there, people would be brought to this facility to be tortured into confessions and to implicate other people. The mere fact of their arrest was proof of their guilt as the regime supposedly made no mistakes, they also had a saying that it is better for an innocent man to be killed than for an enemy to get away.
The most commons ‘crimes’ of these people were being ‘new’ meaning living in a city and not working to grow your own food as a pose to ‘old’ peasant farmers this meant the main target of the regime was intellectuals, supporters of the former government, doctors, engineers, foreign language speakers, essentially anyone with an education but included anyone suspected of non full party support, this was a lot of people.
The camp was split into the prison wings and the torture wings, the torture rooms consisted of a bed frame with irons for holding the victims, they were whipped, electrocuted, water boarded, hung till unconscious then revived by dunking in human waste amongst other methods, eventually everyone died or confessed and all were sentenced to death.
Of the 20,000 people housed at this facility from 1975-1979 only 12 survivors have been confirmed the rest were tortured to death or were sent to the killing fields.

This was our next stop, and probably even more harrowing than the prison, we again took the audio tour that explained how the people who were sent here were convicted and had no chance of survival. An estimated 20,000 people were killed and buried at this small inconspicuous field. They would be driven in trucks and told they would be getting rehoused to avoid panic, they would then be blindfolded and knelt beside mass graves as loud music played and generators ran to muffle the noises. Due to the high cost of ammunition no one was shot instead they were hacked with machetes, pick axes or farming tools and dumped into the graves with some holding 500 bodies.

The next paragraph is very graphic only read if you feel capable.

The most harrowing sight of the day was the 2nd last stop on the tour, it was a large tree beside a mass grave that was covered in offerings left by mourners and tourists, it had been the place that the soldiers killed the babies by grabbing their feet and hitting their heads off the trunk of the tree. The mass grave beside was exclusively filled with the remains of these babies and naked women, likely their mothers, this small 3mx4m grave contained the remains of around 200 people.

Also graphic

The final stop of the tour was a shrine/mausoleum that contained the exhumed skulls of some of the dead it had around 10 floors of skulls totalling 9000 they were categorised by age and cause of death the room had a feeling that is indescribably horrific.

Today was a necessary part of our journey and anyone’s who comes to Cambodia in my opinion. We must remember the horrors that happed here for the sake of the victims dead and alive, there is not one Cambodian who was not affected by this tragedy every family was in some way torn with 2-3 million dead in 4 years from a country of only 8 million. Everyone has lost someone and some have lost everyone. It was common practice to wipe out entire families for the imagined transgressions of the father or mother in order to avoid retribution.

Hamish and I will never forget this things we have seen today neither will millions of Cambodians. They are an amazing people who show joy and generosity at every opportunity despite the horrors of their past each person we have met is as kind as the last.Read more