This post is not going to be funny or witty; in fact it is going to be quite the opposite. The pictures below along with the stories are sad and gut wrenching, so if you are the type that is sensitive to these types of things I ask that you do not continue with today’s post. However, if you do choose to continue my warning is that I am not an outright authority on the history of Cambodia. What I relay to you are stories told to me combined with the various things I have read and seen. I think that the story is important to know, especially as it is not one that is told in the U.S.
Towards the end of the Viet Nam War, the U.S. began bombing Cambodia, which created all sorts of instability. An extreme communist group known as the Khmer Rouge (KR) came to power on April 17, 1975. They were lead by a former history teacher, Pol Pot. Pol Pot looked to the Chinese example of Communism, and felt the need to send everyone back to the country to become agricultural workers. So he evacuated the cities, killing anyone who was a threat to his regime and anyone who was educated… including people who wore glasses b/c it implied they were literate. Once in the fields, the government seized most of the food, leaving very little for the workers, causing mass starvation. Pol Pots closed schools, hospitals and factories, abolished currency, outlawed religion, ad confiscated private Property. In 1979, the KR started attacking Vietnam at its border. The provocation was all Viet Nam needed to invade and overthrow the KR government.
Under Pol Pot, about 2 million people died… whether it be of starvation or from the genocide… these next few pictures and stories tell a little about what happened to a few thousand of them.
Trying to even begin to describe the feeling you are in when you go to these places is more or less futile. The closest I’ve ever felt to this is when I went to a concentration camp… but even that somehow was a bit different. The first place we visited was Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. Toul Sleng, also known as S. 21, was originally a high school, converted into the main detention center of the Khmer Rouge in 1975. It was run by the only man who is currently in prison, Duch. Out of all the people who were sent here, 7 survived. The kinds of people who were sent here were teachers, lawyers, professors… the educated… the wealthy, the doctors and engineers… along with their families. Anyone who could be considered a threat. Rather than give full captions for each of the pictures, I tried to take pictures with the signs in them for you to read. This is a place where people were kept and tortured before being sent to the Killing Fields to die.
Here are the graves of the 14 bodies found at the prison.
These are the torture chambers… What I didn’t take pictures of was that some rooms still had their chalk boards up.
The Faces of the Dead
Cell Blocks
Honoring the Dead
Barbed wire to keep prisoners from committing suicide
Graffiti of love
After being tortured, prisoners and their families were driven 15km away to what are now known as the Killing Fields. (If you haven’t seen the movie, you should). While it looks lovely and peaceful, its history is anything but. They have uncovered 29 out of 86 mass graves. There were 8,985 people killed here. At one point, there were so many executions a day, that they fell behind schedule and had to build a holding room for people awaiting execution to stay overnight (normally they would just be at Toul Sleng). Just to make sure this is clear, the Killing Fields were NOT a prison or a concentration camp. There were only a few buildings, all of which are gone now, which held prisoners, provided a room for the guards, and a place to keep tools. Many skulls have been found still blindfolded. Most people were killed by being beaten over the heads with bamboo sticks in order to save money on bullets. Ex KR soldiers who tried to defect were decapitated using the sharp edges of palm leaves. I touched one… they’re sharp like a saw… but dull enough to cause immense pain and torture.
When you first walk in you see the stupa with close to 9,000 skulls in side of it.
Then you start walking on the trail….
Which is where you start stumbling over clothing still stuck in the mud, you see teeth scattered around, and there are bone fragments everywhere you step. Each year during the rainy season more clothing, more bones, more teeth, are revealed every year.
Many people were just buried alive after just being hit with the bamboo stick. The largest grave, seen in the middle contained 466 bodies. Under that is a picture of where babies were killed and the grave for the children.
To this day, what happened in Cambodia in legal terms is not considered genocide because it was politically motivated. In legal terms the international community still criticizes the Vietnamese for their intervention. No member of the Khmer Rouge has ever been brought to trial (though they are working on that now). Even if they are, they will only be charged with crimes against humanity, and not genocide. Pol Pot died under house arrest in 1998. There are some former KR’s in the government today. Most however, were a part of the movement to bring down Pol Pot; including the current Prime Minister, Hun Sen, who was placed into power by the Vietnamese after they invaded. The turbulent history of Cambodia does not end here. There was an attempted coupe in 1994, and another more successful one in 1997. The KR have been officially under control and no longer a threat since 1999.
Towards the end of the Viet Nam War, the U.S. began bombing Cambodia, which created all sorts of instability. An extreme communist group known as the Khmer Rouge (KR) came to power on April 17, 1975. They were lead by a former history teacher, Pol Pot. Pol Pot looked to the Chinese example of Communism, and felt the need to send everyone back to the country to become agricultural workers. So he evacuated the cities, killing anyone who was a threat to his regime and anyone who was educated… including people who wore glasses b/c it implied they were literate. Once in the fields, the government seized most of the food, leaving very little for the workers, causing mass starvation. Pol Pots closed schools, hospitals and factories, abolished currency, outlawed religion, ad confiscated private Property. In 1979, the KR started attacking Vietnam at its border. The provocation was all Viet Nam needed to invade and overthrow the KR government.
Under Pol Pot, about 2 million people died… whether it be of starvation or from the genocide… these next few pictures and stories tell a little about what happened to a few thousand of them.
Trying to even begin to describe the feeling you are in when you go to these places is more or less futile. The closest I’ve ever felt to this is when I went to a concentration camp… but even that somehow was a bit different. The first place we visited was Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. Toul Sleng, also known as S. 21, was originally a high school, converted into the main detention center of the Khmer Rouge in 1975. It was run by the only man who is currently in prison, Duch. Out of all the people who were sent here, 7 survived. The kinds of people who were sent here were teachers, lawyers, professors… the educated… the wealthy, the doctors and engineers… along with their families. Anyone who could be considered a threat. Rather than give full captions for each of the pictures, I tried to take pictures with the signs in them for you to read. This is a place where people were kept and tortured before being sent to the Killing Fields to die.
Here are the graves of the 14 bodies found at the prison.
These are the torture chambers… What I didn’t take pictures of was that some rooms still had their chalk boards up.
The Faces of the Dead
Cell Blocks
Honoring the Dead
Barbed wire to keep prisoners from committing suicide
Graffiti of love
After being tortured, prisoners and their families were driven 15km away to what are now known as the Killing Fields. (If you haven’t seen the movie, you should). While it looks lovely and peaceful, its history is anything but. They have uncovered 29 out of 86 mass graves. There were 8,985 people killed here. At one point, there were so many executions a day, that they fell behind schedule and had to build a holding room for people awaiting execution to stay overnight (normally they would just be at Toul Sleng). Just to make sure this is clear, the Killing Fields were NOT a prison or a concentration camp. There were only a few buildings, all of which are gone now, which held prisoners, provided a room for the guards, and a place to keep tools. Many skulls have been found still blindfolded. Most people were killed by being beaten over the heads with bamboo sticks in order to save money on bullets. Ex KR soldiers who tried to defect were decapitated using the sharp edges of palm leaves. I touched one… they’re sharp like a saw… but dull enough to cause immense pain and torture.
When you first walk in you see the stupa with close to 9,000 skulls in side of it.
Then you start walking on the trail….
Which is where you start stumbling over clothing still stuck in the mud, you see teeth scattered around, and there are bone fragments everywhere you step. Each year during the rainy season more clothing, more bones, more teeth, are revealed every year.
Many people were just buried alive after just being hit with the bamboo stick. The largest grave, seen in the middle contained 466 bodies. Under that is a picture of where babies were killed and the grave for the children.
To this day, what happened in Cambodia in legal terms is not considered genocide because it was politically motivated. In legal terms the international community still criticizes the Vietnamese for their intervention. No member of the Khmer Rouge has ever been brought to trial (though they are working on that now). Even if they are, they will only be charged with crimes against humanity, and not genocide. Pol Pot died under house arrest in 1998. There are some former KR’s in the government today. Most however, were a part of the movement to bring down Pol Pot; including the current Prime Minister, Hun Sen, who was placed into power by the Vietnamese after they invaded. The turbulent history of Cambodia does not end here. There was an attempted coupe in 1994, and another more successful one in 1997. The KR have been officially under control and no longer a threat since 1999.
1 comment:
Thank you
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