Day 37 - Remembrance

If you're in Phnom Penh it almost goes without saying that you should go to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S21) and the Killing Fields. I'll be honest, it's probably only in the last few years from other friends coming to Cambodia that I even really heard about the genocide here in the 70s, it's not something I learnt about at school and isn't so widely talked about in the West in general. To give a top line, in 1975 Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took political control in Cambodia and forced everyone out of the cities to a horrific life of forced labour in the farms. Any one perceived to be intelligent (even just people who wore glasses or had soft hands), anyone from different minority races, any one religious was imprisoned, tortured and killed. No one was allowed out, borders were covered with landmines and Cambodians abroad were even called back under false pretences to be killed. It's thought up to 3 million people were killed over their less than 4 years in power which was a quarter of the population.

We went to S21 first. Before it was a torture prison S21 was a school. People were brought here and tortured into making false confessions about their spy/CIA connections, despite most of them not having a clue who the CIA were. There was an excellent audio tour here which guided you around from room to room which had exhibits and items in them and told real life stories from victim's families and the handful of survivors. Most harrowing were the photographs of the prisoners, both when they entered the prison and in some cases when they were killed here (usually accidentally through the torture, purposeful killing wasn't done much on site). Everything was very well documented by the Khmer Rouge, they even had some of the prisoners who were artists draw scenes of what was happening. The site is now a UNESCO site and there is a very strong message of keeping the memories with you in the hope the world will not see an event like this again.

Next we went to the Killing Fields. Once S21 prisoners had made their confessions there were brought here to be killed almost immediately. The guards waited until night time, put loud music on so those outside couldn't hear anything and basically battered people to death as bullets were expensive. Victims were put into mass graves. Men, women, children, babies - it didn't matter. This Killing Field was one of hundreds around the county. It's actually very peaceful here now, which is the intention. The site is being preserved as a memorial. Bodies have been removed (almost 9000) and all the skulls put into a beautiful memorial stupa.

It felt wrong to take photos but I did take one of the 'rules board' at S21 which I think sums up how brutal and deranged the Khmer Rouge were. It was a very sad morning but we're glad that we came here. There was a message of remembering the past but not letting it define Cambodia today which is very powerful.

We came back to the hotel for a couple of hours to escape the afternoon heat and to plan our last couple of weeks in Asia (yikes) then got a tuk tuk to the river. I don't mind the tuk tuk situation quite so much here. There's so so many and you get asked if you want one repeatedly even if you just said no to 5 of their friends, which is quite annoying but there's a rough idea on a fair fare (cheap) and everyone is jovial through out the bartering. Due to what happened in the 70s the population here is skewed young and everywhere on the river are groups of young people eating, chatting, playing football or even doing an aerobics class. We went for dinner at a tapas place which is run by an NGO that train former street children in chef and service skills. The food was amazing, especially the chocolate cheesecake. They also have a shop next door where they sell local crafts and you can get your nails done. It was a great concept. Child exploitation is still a big problem in many areas of SE Asia with some parents relying on sending their kids to the streets to sell things as more money can be made this way than by them being in school so there's kids getting no education or skills for their adulthood.

After dinner we went on the Cheltenham Quality Wifi Hunt. We found a bar with a covers band which was sufficient. I'm not entirely sure they were singing the right words to their Amy Winehouse and Lionel Richie covers but the rough syllables were there. I sat and caught up on the January edition of Asia Life magazine whilst Matt watched the horses until he felt sorry enough for me to take me back to the hotel - though he did then leave me there to go to the bar across the road. One more day....Weiterlesen