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Day Fifty-Six
Phnom Penh Killing Fields - S21 Museum - Russian Market
It was finally the day that we had come to Phnom Penh for. The main attraction here is the S21 (security office 21) & the killing fields. We had arranged for transportation to take us to the killing fields & then to S21. We sat inside the reception office waiting to be told when we would be leaving & thats when we got talking to another couple about places to go in Thailand as thats where they had just travelled from. The man from reception came up to us & told us that we would now be leaving. Funnily enough the couple who we had just be chatting away to had also booked the same transportation but as there was only four people that wanted to go we were told that we would be sharing a tuk-tuk.
We all got in to the tuk-tuk & continued to chat away about the wonderful places in Thailand. The first stop where we would be heading was the killing fields. I had been reading about the killing fields & history behind genocide & what the Cambodian had gone through. When we arrived we could hear children who was playing outside in a nearby school. We had to pay a small entrance fee to go inside. Once inside it was like you could almost feel the sadness here.
Straight ahead in front of us there was a big white memorial monument which we went to look at. As we approached we could make a donation & pay for some incense sticks which we could light & place in a pot at the front of the memorial. There was steps leading up to the tower but in order to go up we had to remove our shoes. As we got to the top of the steps the middle of the tower was made of glass & inside the glass tower was thousands of human skulls which had been placed on top of each other to fill the glass. These skulls where of the victims that had died at the hands of the Khemer Rouge & at this very field.
As we got closer to look inside at the bottom of the glass was the clothing of the victims which had been on the bodies. I began to get upset at the shear horror what these people had gone through. On most of the skulls you could see the fracture lines & holes where these peoplehad been bludgened to death as bullets where too expensive to use to kill the people they were simply beaten to death.
From the monument we began to walk around the fields & all you could see was clothing hanging out of the ground & big massive dips in all the fields. We soon came to realise that these big holes in the grounds where mass graves of where the dead where thrown in & their bodies left to rot. We had been told that some of these people who had taken blows to the head & thrown in the pits where not even dead but where left to die amongst the already dead. I was completely horrified.
As we walked further around there was areas that had been made to display to the public the bones & teeth of the people who had been battered. The more we walk around the worse i began to feel. I can't even begin to tell you how soul destroying we felt walking around this place. The further we walked around the big the massive graves got & there were wooden boards next to the holes which are now covered over in grass to tell you how many bodies that had been pulled out of the pit. There was a women & childrens mass grave too where new born babies had been found. All I could think was how can these people possibly hurt children.
As we walked passed the mass grave there was a huge tree which had a wooden sign that told & displayed information about how the tree played a huge part in the killings of the children. As we read the information we quickly learnt that in order to kill the children & babies the Khemer Rouge used to grab the children by their feet & smash their heads against the tree trunk. We were mortified & sickened by the thought never mind the actions of these people. It was then we learnt that it was actually other children from the age of 12 upwards that where killing these babies.
As I fought back the tears we walked past the biggest mass grave that was discovered in this field. We had read that over 400 bodies, men, women & children had been pulled out of this grave when they began to excavate the site. Walking back towards where to had entered there was rows of big wooden information posts. The posts had been put there in replacement for buildings that had been constructed but later knocked down. These buidlings had been made by the Khemer Rouge & they where holding places for the people who where waiting to die. There was another buidling which was used as a torture chamber for the prisoners.
Towards to exit of the field was a museum of information which you could enter & look around to find out more about what had taken place here. Inside there were photographs of victims & there was drawings & portraits to show what had happened. There were skulls that were displayed where you could see the different type of wounds recieved when the victims had been taken blows to the head. It showed you the different between a blunt instrument like a blunt gardening tool, a gun shot fire to the head & all the different sufferings these people endured under Pol Potts regime.
In a big cabinet there were displays of all the tools & instruments including pieces of bamboo wood which where used as weapons to hurt people. You could look at the clothing that Khemer Rouge & the victims wore. There were big information boards telling us how the Khemer Rouge wanted Cambodia to be like. They wanted a pure race of people & it didn't matter if you was a top doctor, a professor, a school teacher or anything consider as a high society job if you didn't follow regime & if you weren't considered pure then you where slaughtered.
Back in the tuk-tuk we were all slient as we sat there all thinking & reflecting on what we had just seen & experienced. I was super shocked at everything I had seen, it was totally unimaginable & my heart really melted. It really makes you reflect on life & how the Cambodian people even today have to deal with this as it wasn't that long ago it all happened.
Our next stop was to see the Security 21 (S21) which actually used to be a school before it was turned in to a prison & used as a holding & torture place for the genocide victims. As we approached it looked exactly the way a normal Cambodian School looked like apart from there was barbed wired which rested on the top of the big high walls surrounding the buildings. We again paid a small entrance we & we were given information booklets about S21.
We began to walk towards the first building & there was a memorial monument in the middle of the grounds for the people who had been held or killed there. There was a number of white tombs which were all in a line & they contained the bodies of the victims. Straight away before entering any of the buildings you could feel that the place had a whole eerie feel & it was not a nice place.
We entered on the ground floor of the first building & there was many rooms. In each room there was a rusty iron type of bed which had no mattress & there was chain that were attached to it. This is where people would have been changed to the bed & beaten & left. When you looked around the rooms you can tell that they used to be class rooms as some of the rooms had the chalk board still attached on the wall. In every room there were photographs hanging on the wall that had been taken of the people whilst they where getting tortured. You could see them chained & strapped to the bed with blood all over the floor dripping from their bodies.... It was truely an horrific sight to see.
In the next building the whole of the outside was covered in barb wire. There was a small door way gate which was open but barbed wired masked the entire place. The Khemer Rouge made sure that there was no escape for these people. The next building was worse than the last. Each of the classrooms had been turned in to smalled cells. There where small brick walls which had been errected in the room so that the room was split in to small spaces. Inside the smaller brick rooms within the class rooms was chains cemented in to the floor. You could see that there was marks on the walls where weapons or people had been smashed against it & as awful as it is to say you could see the blood stain marks on the floor.
We walked around in silence, not speaking to each other in the slightest. There was nothing that we could even discuss about this place - we kept our thoughts & our prayers for these people to oursleves. We walked in to the next room & it looked even worse. All the windows had been boarded up so these people never seen proper daylight & they had made holes in the connecting walls of the classrooms as makeshift doorways so they didn't have to walk in & out of the rooms. We can't even describe the true horror or vileness of it all - this place was really grim.
The further we walked down the rooms the cells changed & they had become wooden cells inside the classrooms instead of brick ones. The wooden cells where worse as they were darker, damper & less chance of seeing anything that was happening. In the cell door there was a tiny little hole & I can't even tell you that it was to put food through because these victims where hardly fed. Upstairs in this building they had put all the photographs of all the victims & people that had been put in S21 so we went up the stairs to have a look.
There was thousands upon thousands of photographs of peoples faces. You could see the terror in their eyes & faces as they had been made to stand for photographs. There was photographs that showed peoples beaten bodies & faces. Pictures of people actually getting tortured. In the whole of the 24 & half years I have been alive I have not witnessed anything as shocking as this.
In one of the last rooms there was a book which the public could write in so Andy wrote a few words on our behalf to express the sadness that we have felt. In the last room there were photographs & information about people who where in the Khemer Rouge & worked at S21 in order to save their lives. If you think about it if you had to make a choice about being a slave, being tortured & beaten then slaughtered or becoming part of the Khemer Rouge in order to protect your family & stay alive - We know which one we would have chosen!!!
Once again back in the tuk-tuk we had arranged to be taken to the Russian Market with the nice Canadian people that we had met. We hadn't paid for that part of the tour but the Candadians had so we slipped the tuk-tuk driver $2 & he was happy for us to tag along. At the Russian Market (we don't know why it is called the Russian Market as there is nothing Russian about it) we decided to find a restaurant & grab some lunch. We sat down & enjoyed dinner together whilst continuing to discuss all the travels that we had been on.
After dinner we went for a look around the market & it was huge. There was everything you could ever want to buy in there but there was nothing that took our fancy so instead of shopping we just walked around. As we had agreed a time for the tuk-tuk to take us back he had told us that he would drop us by the guesthouse instead of outside so that he could keep the money... the crafty little b*****.
Back at the guesthouse we had a little lazy snooze & before we knew it the hours had flew by. We went to the reception desk so that we could sort out the bus for tomorrow as we wanted to go to Ratanakiri in the North East of Cambodia & we need to book & pay for the bus. With that all sorted we headed out of the Guesthouse & on the street in order to find some nice grub.
We didn't have to walk to far as we soon find a little mini restaurant that had reasonable prices. We went in & sat down & order the Vermicelli. It wasn't on the plate for too long as it was really really nice. On the way back to the Guesthouse we stopped in the shop so we could buy some supplies as we knew it was going to be an extremely long journey tomorrow.
Back in our room we began to pack our bags so we could be ready for the pick up time tomorrow morning. It was going to be an early start but Ratanakiri here we come......
- comments
jacks and badge wow, what fantastic readin again becks, it is amazing cos u 2 have seen it all, keep the blogs comin where and when u can. love u both trillions and miss u morexxxxxxx
Chrissie Babes Hi Becks & Andy, Just read your account of The Killing Fields and it's put a miserable Monday in work well into perspective. I could feel everything you'd seen...just beyond any humanity. Well written Becks. Miss you loads but so happy for you both.... " if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it"!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!! Keep havin fun! Loads of Love Chrisxxxxxx