Cambodia's Killing Fields

The last time I was in Cambodia (about 4 1/2 years ago) the one thing I never did was go to the Killing Fields memorials. There are two major ones near Phnom Penh; The Killing Fields themselves and the old prison. So I had promised myself that I would do that on this trip. The trip out to the Killing Fields is about 20 minutes outside PP. I have been spending so much time inside the hotel this past week (as I was training folks at a conference room inside the hotel) that just driving around was nice. I did appreciate the car wash that had a SUV at it with about 14 small women popping out simultaneously washing all different parts of the car (popping out of each door, etc). I did see some pigs (for those of you eagerly anticipating pigs on bikes stories) but they were in a carriage thing behind the bike not on the bike itself.

So the "killing fields" signify many places around Cambodia where people were worked to death - this particular one Choeung Ek is where the people were trucked in (often from the prisons) to be killed. It sounds like they didn't really spend much time there. Many were brought in at night on a truck and just executed immediately in mass graves. When they started bringing too many people in to kill all at once they were detained but only for very short times - ultimately this is where you went to die. They said the killings were all done by hitting over the head with bamboo or metal instruments as they ran out of money for guns and bullets. Today there's really nothing left. They've built a memorial stupa that houses 100s of skulls found there. And there are signs signifying various mass graves, buildings that stored killing instruments that are no longer there, etc. Because I had read much of the history - this particular place didn't haunt me as much as I would have expected.

My next stop was Tuol Sleng, which was a high school in Phnom Penh prior to the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot's men took it over from 1975-1979 and used it as a prison/interrogation place for people suspected to have info on traitors. This place will haunt me for a long time. When they brought someone in for interrogation they photographed them and their whole family. They immediately killed the babies and would then torture the family members. The torture was horrific and many died during it. The rest were shipped off to Choeung Ek in the middle of the night and executed there. There were only 7 survivors; mostly artists and drivers who were needed until the very end. When the place was "liberated" there were 14 bodies found, of Khmer Rouge officials that Pol Pot thought were CIA. The way they found these 14 was photographed by the liberating army (Cambodians and Vietnamese) and is gruesome. There are still massive blood stains in the rooms where they were held. The rest of the prison has smaller cells or mass cells and people were kept there for 2-4 months on average. Everyone who died there was photographed by the Khmer Rouge to ensure that Pol Pot would know they were dead (he clearly was suspicious of everyone and executed his own top officials). 20,000 people were prisoners here at some point. The museum has rows and rows and room after room of the headshots they took of people when they came in. And then pictures of dead, tortured victims. One of the 7 guys who survived was a painter and has painted the scenes he remembers on the walls of the museum.

The guide I hired here was a women in her mid 40s. She, like most people I've talked to about this era here, was incredibly matter of fact about it all. Pointing to a can "this was for shitting", to a wall with blood, "this is where they beat babies". At the end I asked about her experience and she said she was 14 when the Khmer Rouge came to power. They forced her family from Phnom Penh to the villages and immediately killed her parents. They separated the rest of the sisters and brothers and she never saw them again. She showed me scars on her ankles from torture and says she still doesn't sleep at night and her head isn't right. I presume they hire folks that are seeking treatment for mental trauma as guides as an employment scheme.

After this I went across the street to have lunch and the cafe was playing "smack that ass". I won't bother pointing out how ironic it was but safe to say it was totally surreal.