Our Asian Adventure - Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Part 1 - the parks might be full and happy, but it was not always so

*This is the first time I have had to provide a warning about a blog post. This post contains graphic details that might be disturbing.* (My post on Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Part 2 will be much happier.)

We arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia with 2.5 million people, by car from Siem Reap. If you’d like, please refer to my blogs ‘Our Asian Adventure: National Route 6, the road to Phnom Penh’ and ‘Our Asian Adventure: Siem Reap - I’m Smitten’, Parts 1 and 2. It was a Sunday evening, and the road along the riverside in downtown Phnom Penh was clogged with cars, scooters, and people gathering to stroll, visit, and eat; and in the park behind our hotel, groups of adults were exercising to music, children were roller-blading (hockey crazy Canada would have been happy to have those girls, they were so fast!), couples were playing badminton, young men were playing kickball and volleyball, and people were walking, laughing, talking, and eating.

But this sense of casualness and frivolity did not always exist in Phnom Penh. As part of a day-long tour with our tour guide Tokk of Viator tours, we learned of the trauma that was imposed on this country from the genocide that occurred in a four-year period in the mid-1970’s. It was emotional and mind boggling.

Our first stop was what we know as the Killing Fields or the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre, about 17 kilometres from downtown Phnom Penh. It is a former orchard that was used by the Khmer Rouge, a communist political group who had taken control of the country, as a killing place and is the best known of some 300 killing fields. It is believed that the Khmer Rouge executed well over 1 million people (maybe as high as 3 million) between 1975 and 1979. At Choeung Ek, almost 9,000 bodies were found in mass graves. The deceased included political prisoners, educators, artists, males, females, intellectuals, children, and certain religious adherents. Death came by brutal means - such as clubbing or beheading. The ‘goal’ of the Khmer Rouge was to create a classless agrarian society. City dwellers were moved to the countryside to work as labourers. Financial mismanagement lead to famine and disease which resulted in hundreds of thousands more deaths. A good article is “Cambodia” by the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts Holocaust and Genocide Studies at cal.umn.edu.

The centrepiece of Choeung Ek is a ‘stupa’ or memorial with glass sides that contains 5,000 human skulls as well as body parts. Around the fields are mass grave sites where bones and clothing are still rising to the surface. There are little ‘stations’ set around the walkways telling the history of the place. One particularly emotional site was the memorial tree where children were killed, some by having their heads bashed against the tree. We had held our emotions in check up to that point.

A mass grave, a tree from which loud music blared to drown out torture sounds, and victims’ clothing that has risen to the surface of the graves:

The tree where children were killed:

Our second stop was at S21, or the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Tuol Sleng means ‘hill of poisonous trees’. The site is a former school where ‘prisoners’ were held by the Khmer Rouge before being executed. (I am putting ‘prisoners’ in quotes because they were all innocents.) The majority were transported to Choeung Ek by bus in the night. It was called S21 as there were many such facilities throughout the country, over 150 - this was number 21. It is estimated the building held between 12,000 and 20,000 ‘prisoners’ over the years. The museum has recreated holding cells and contains restraint equipment such as shackles, as well as hundreds of pictures of ‘prisoners’ (shocking pictures which included mothers and fathers and babies and young people and children). Faces were hollow and eyes were bland - they all knew their fate. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the buildings. The cell blocks were covered with electrified barbed wire, classrooms were converted into many tiny cells, windows were covered with bars, and ‘prisoners’ were tortured and malnourished.

Here are pictures of cell blocks. The old school sports field goal post served as a form of torture. A ‘prisoner’ was hung upside down until almost passing out, and then their head would be dunked in the (probably rancid) water in the bowls. The person would either confess to something or die. Other forms of torture were suffocation, beatings, blood draining, electric shocks, pins under nails, etc. Victims were forbidden to make a sound or would suffer a worse fate.

Out of up to 20,000 ‘prisoners’, only 12 survived - 8 men and 4 children. The only chance they had was if they had a particular skill or status that could be helpful to the Khmer Rouge - or maybe good fortune or divine intervention. In an emotional moment at the end of our tour, we were introduced to two survivors. One has dementia, and his family says he has little memory of events; but one, 94 year old Chum Mey, was very healthy and bright and kind. He warmly shook our hands when he learned we were from Canada. He had a tiny Canadian flag on his lapel and told us in his language that a Canadian had given it to him. He had been a mechanic with the Khmer Rouge (even Khmer Rouge were killed if it was believed they had turned suit). He was falsely accused of being a CIA spy and confessed under torture, even though he had never heard of the CIA. We purchased a couple of his books which he signed. Chum Mey has been active in telling the story of Cambodia’s genocide with the hope of preventing this ever happening again. He has appeared in films, documentaries, and news articles and started a non-profit agency to help former victims of the Khmer Rouge. A good article about Chum Mey and Bou Meng appeared in BBC by Kirstie Brewer, ‘How two men survived a prison where 12,000 were killed’, bbc.com

Some of the 12 survivors - Chum is on the left:

Chum was warm and friendly and bright. He wants the story told.

There are many articles on line about Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng. It’s worth some reading.

I cannot describe the impact these two experiences had on me. It is unbelievable that these events happened in our lifetime. I remember as a teenager seeing some television ‘news’, but it seemed far, far away at the time. Like the horrors of Dachau or Auschwitz, every young person needs to learn this history. As the saying goes, those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. We never want to go back.

So, Phnom Penh and Cambodia might still have problems. We were told there is ongoing progress needed relating to human rights and equality. Hopefully, it will continue to move forward, and evil forces (in Cambodia and everywhere) will be stopped before they ever take reign again. Let the people continue to mingle and laugh and eat and ride scooters and rollerblade around the parks.