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I had woken early, pretty much drenched in sweat from the sweltering conditions of the room. I don't think Laura was too far behind me but at least the nights sleep had improved from the previous. We were quickly changed and headed down for the usual eggs and toast breakfast on offer. We had arranged to meet Sian at 10:30am at our usual bar on the riverfront to go together to the infamous S-21 prison. Sian arrived in a tuk-tuk who was associated with her hostel, we negotiated a good price and we were speeding through the hectic streets to our destination. The streets were already lively with everyday goings on... The air was hot and sticky so the breeze was welcome as we whizzed through the streets.
Ashamed as we are now, neither of us knew much about what happened in Cambodia during the 1970's. We knew scrappy details about the genocide but could not tell you the details. I will give some background history to hopefully make things clear for those, like us, needed more information.
Prior to the late 19th century Cambodia was always at risk from being engulfed by its closest neighbours, mainly Siam (Thailand) and Vietnam. In 1864 French colonial rule was instated which brought a level of stability back to Cambodia. The French were able to relinquish the north western sectors of Siem Reap and Angkor back into Cambodian rule. In November 1953, led by King Sihanouk, Cambodia was declared independent. What followed over the next fifteen or so years was a period of relative prosperity for the country. Unfortunately in neighbouring Vietnam, war was escalating between the communist north and the US backed south. The war inevitably spilled over onto Cambodia with numerous bombs obliterating its eastern flank. With the concerns of communist rule from Vietnam the Cambodian people grew restless and the prospect of civil war was looming. King Sihanouk relinquished control to General Lon Nol, who basically implemented martial law. Non Lol formed a 'government in exile' as it were, based in Beijing. They allied themselves with an indigenous Cambodian political group which Sihanouk dubbed the 'Khmer Rouge'. The Khmer Rouge were more powerful and eventually over threw Non Lol and took full control.
The Khmer Rouge had been formed in the 1950's and grew a following under leader Pol Pot. The leader had studied in Paris where he joined the French communist party where he began developing radial Marxist ideology. In Beijing, after the obvious concerns of the stability of the country, the Khmer Rouge entered Cambodia in military force and took control of Phnom Penh on 17th April 1975. The people were initially optimistic but would not know the horrors which lay ahead.
Pol Pot wanted to create a vision which would later become known as 'year zero'. The aim was to transform Cambodia into a agrarian cooperative state which would be peasant led and untainted by anything which came before. It was basically a radial far right communist movement. Everyone was forced from the cities and sent to work in agricultural jobs in the country no matter what background you came from. There was to be nothing imported including televisions, radios and so on.... Cambodians were forced to leave their homes, livelihoods and become separated from their families. The conditions they were forced to work in were horrendous and many died of illness and famine. Think people who have never worked in agriculture being forced to work in fields for 12-15 hours daily with no nutrition, water and dealing with intense heat. The aim according to the Khmer Rouge was to make Cambodia, then renamed Democratic Kampuchea entirely self sufficient mainly through increasing rice production. They shut down schools, hospitals, civil services and more which meant there was no education, no medicine for the people and many died of very treatable diseases. The cities became ghost towns and Cambodia had been transformed into one big slave camp.
To recruit numbers the Khmer Rouge targeted young children and teenagers. It was felt they were not tainted with Cambodia's past and needed to be taken from their parents as not to 'spoil' them. They played on their innocence and naivety and basically brainwashed them. These recruits later became known as 'cadres' and would play a significant and harrowing in the regime.
During the regime's rule it was known that Pol Pol was a paranoid character and was very anxious about his philosophies being challenged or undermined. Once a very respectable place of education, Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by militia in 1975 and transformed into Security Prison 21. As we approached the now Tuol Sleng museum you can to was a school instantly. You walk inside the entrance and four large 3 tiered classroom buildings surround the perimeter. Before I explain what we saw, I will explain about happened at the prison during the Khmer Rouge regime.
As mentioned earlier, the Khmer Rouge wanted to create a agrarian state where everyone was equal. They found people who would or could challenge their ideology a threat. This included educated people such as education, medical, financial professionals and even people who wore glasses as they were deemed intellectual. People were brought to this prison who were thought a treat or deemed traitors. Prisoners were held in horrible conditions without food, water or sanitation. Prisoners were usually interrogated using brutal forms of torture which included, bludgeoning, cutting, inserting bamboo sticks under nails and the actual ripping off of nails. In many cases there are accounts of beatings happening until the prisoner was unconscious or even dead. Most of these people had committed no crime but the sadistic torture methods often made them confess to crimes they had not committed. This was most likely down to finding anyway to stop the pain. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge took photographic evidence of their brutality, with mug shots of all the prisoners and even taken when they were bloodied and beaten.
When you walk around the prison cells you and see blood stains on the floor and they have left the steel beds along with ammunition boxes used for excrement. Outside the first cell building is 14 graves which were the bodies of the last victims of the prison before it was liberated by the Vietnamese in 1979. They buried them in the old play area as they had no possible way to identify them and it has been a memorial site ever since. Right near this cemetery area is the old schools exercise area which used to be a rope climbing frame. The Khmer Rouge used this to dangle prisoners and beat them to the point of unconsciousness before dipping their heads in filthy water to wake them again so the interrogation process could continue. The second building contains the mug shots of all the prisoners which included men, women and children. It is hard to imagine some of these were only here because they were from the wrong background, or wore glass or had attended school, its really is quite harrowing. There are disturbing pictures of bloodied people looking emaciated who are still tied to beds. The whole place is just so sad and makes you feel sick. The photos of the prisoners breaks your heart as they all met he same fate.... Women, men and children were separated with only very small infants staying with mum, whole families would be bought and separated and you can't imagine how they would feel every time they heard a scream of terror or a brutal torture, not knowing if its their loved one.
They have kept one of the prison blocks exactly how it was during its active period. One floor contains rows of tiny cells made haphazardly from bricks and mortar probably no more than one metre in width. The next floor contained wooden cells which were very claustrophobic and actually a little haunting which made us feel uneasy. There was a section on the prison guards who were ordinary boys made to carry out horrific orders on other human beings. A lot of these were trained from a very young age and were scared for their lives to challenge the regime. A lot of these 'cadres' were also executed under the Khmer Rouge regime. There is barbed wire along the balconies to stop desperate prisoners from committing suicide and its very prominent to stand there and see what they saw. There is a room full of torture equipment and another full of bones that were found buried here. Initially they dead were disposed of here but later they would just escort them to the killing fields as the numbers increased. There is an exhibition showing some of the prisoners biographies and their supposed confessions and its so sad to read, many were just teenagers or in their twenties and confessing to absurd charges. They included a guy from Australia, one from France and another from Newcastle in England.
Out in the yard is a small stall selling overpriced drinks and snacks, along side this sits one of the survivors who is selling his book while opposite is another survivor (seven were found when the prison was liberated). We spoke briefly to him but when it transpired we didn't want a book he soon lost interest... Although he had an agent or something selling for him. I wondered what it must be like to spend everyday here after experience such a hellish time. We bought some water and sat away from the midday heat before wondering back in to see the bits we had missed. This included biographies before and after of the Khmer Rouge cadres... They explain how they were enlisted and what they are doing now... Its quite strange to read and very sad. I always think when you see someone in the street here of a certain age... Maybe over forty you can't imagine what they have seen or been through but I suppose there are them who have done things as well which I imagine will haunt them for ever more.
It is hard to put this experience into words and it is something you have to really see rather than being explained. The place is incredibly eery and harrowing and really presents what happened in a matter of fact way. we walked around in silence for a good few hours before walking out with a very empty heart.
After we had experience this we were quite down beat as you can imagine. We stopped off at local street stall and had some fried noodles which were very nice. We flagged down and haggled a tuk tuk driver who took us back to our hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening having a few casual beers and grabbing some noodles and rice. We were both very tired from the poor night sleep last night and decided to head back to our hotel very reluctantly. On walking into our room the heat just hit you and we looked at each other and thought, no sleep tonight either!
- comments
Mum A very harrowing an indepth report well done...i have learned a great deal of the horrors which took place in the 70s impossible to imagine ...but we'll written an very informative