People can be very cruel

The main reason why we came to Phnom Penh was to see the killing fields at Chorung Ek and the prison Tuol Sleng (also called S-21).

To be honest I didn't even know about this massive genocide until one of Jaco's friends in NZ asked if we are going to the killing fields when we are in Cambodia. Strange as this happened more recently (1975-1979) than the German Holocaust and whipped out a 3rd of the population of Cambodia.

We first visited the killing fields which was bizarrely peaceful with lots of plant growth and birds sounds breaking the eerie silence as people walk around listening to the audio guide and no one says a word.

No words is probably the only way to describe what we experienced today, and bitter disappointment in how cruel us humans can be.

The current Cambodian government has resurrected a memorial in the middle of the killing fields that holds all the excavated bones and clothes found at the site during the excavations. This is in line with the Cambodian belief to hold the remains of a deceased in a special place to honor the dead. This memorial not only honors the dead but reminds man kind of how dangerous power hungry leaders could be.

At S-21 it was much of the same with blood stained floor, very visual paintings and photographs telling the story of the horror and pain that more than 20,000 people in that prison endured in their last days. Only 12 prisoners of this place left the prison alive and some as still alive today.

Two of the 12 survivors are responsible for most of the paintings and literature that tells the stories and they were actually there for book signings today. We only saw them towards the end of the tour and I couldn't get myself to even look at them for longer than a second or 2 without being overcome by emotion over what they have endured and here they are telling the story not only for their own healing but to try and educate the world so that a genocide like this never happens again.

Hard to experience what we have seen today but I am glad we did.

What i think strikes me most, is that this happened only a couple of years before the end of apartheid and personally affected every single person in Cambodia (oppressors and oppressed, while population suffered from PTSD for years, no matter which side you were on), and it seems like all the Cambodian people now are almost proud that this is a part of they history and they want the world to know it and learn from it, wouldn't it be great if South Africans can be proud so to speak of our history and show it to the world for everyone to learn from our mistakes. I think that would do wonders to heal the open wounds in our lovely country and build a better tomorrow for everyone in the nation.

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