Cambodia

Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and it's most famous tourist attraction is the Killing Fields and Genocide museum. When we arrived to Phnom Penh the tuk tuk driver, Soon, who drove us to our hotel, offered to drive us to both attractions the following day. Soon picked us up from our hotel at 9am and drove us firstly to the Killing Fields.

The Killing Fields was a old Chinese graveyard that was used as a place to execute Cambodian people, and all of their family members, during the communist Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979. Pol Pot, the leader of the communist party Khmer Rouge, and his associates sent up to three million people to the killing fields across the country during this period of time. During the tour we heard about how people, including children as young as two years old, were brutally killed with handheld weapons and then their bodies we're thrown into mass graves.

After the Killing Fields, Soon our driver told us about how he was affected by this period and how he and his family escaped being brought to the Killing Fields. He told us about the hard working conditions during the Khmer Rouge regime and how they would only get one small bowl of porridge a day. He explained how every family were ordered to move to different villages/towns every couple of weeks as the Khmer Rouge didn't want the common people to join bonds and try to overturn them. He told us about how families were split up during this period and it took years afterwards for some families to discover if their loved ones were alive or not.

Next he brought us to the Genocide museum which was a secondary school that was turned into cell blocks during the ruling of the Khmer Rouge. They used this location to interrogate and beat Cambodian people who were suspected of not agreeing with the Khmer Rouge rules. Once the "traitors" admitted their faults they were then sent to the Killing Fields for execution. In the museum they had walls of pictures of the people, old and young, who were brought to this location before being killed.

We also learned about how after Pol Pot and his associates were disthrowned as rulers of Cambodia, it took years for criminal charges to be brought against them because many other countries didn't believe that these events happened. Pol Pot lived until he was 72 years old, had grandchildren and was only put under house arrest for only the last two years of his life.

It was horrible to listen to the stories about how so many people including young children were brutally killed and shocking to see all of the pictures of the victims. It was frustrating hearing about the outcome of Pol Pot and his associates when they did so many terrible things. I felt so sad for Soon for having to live through this terrible history event but relieved that he was still alive today to be able to tell his story to us.Read more