Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Tuoll Sleng Genocide Museum (also known as S-21) & The Killing Fields of Choueng Ek
Our next stop on the trip is the capital city of Phnom Penh, it means Lady Hill but you have to watch the way you pronounce it or it means Lady Cake. We arrived around lunch and we took part in an organized tour which would take us to the killing fields and genocide museum.
Having a little knowledge of the genocide in Cambodia, the trip to the site was filled with apprehension. Our guide for the day began to tell the story - a personal story that was a prelude to a day that will be engrained in our memory forever.
Between 1975 and 1979, Pohl Pot and his Khmer Rouge massacred half of the entire population of Cambodia (approximately 3 million people) in a bid to return them all to agricultural workers and create a classless society. This affected all families in Cambodia and our guide said his father has not seen his brothers or sisters since.
The killing field was exactly that, a field, formally a park. As we began to walk around and observe the cordoned off areas/holes where bodies had been found, it became quickly apparent that it wasn't just the holes that had held bodies, it was the whole area. As I stood listening to the guide I pointed to the ground and highlighted that there was a tooth. As we started to look on the ground you could see bones, torn clothes and blindfolds that had emerged from the ground - it was the most horrific experience of my life; the dead were literally rising as the rain and dust brought them to the surface. Even though there is a memorial (holds all the skulls found, around 8000) in the park I felt like we were intruding but I guess they want people to know and understand the atrocity that took place here. The events took place only 30 years ago, this was still a live war crime site.
The stories the guide told I would find difficult to relay, as they were so abhorrent it's almost unbelievable. All I will say is that the Khmer Rouge used children to carry out the vast majority of the executions as they could easily manipulate, brainwash and threaten them to do it. After the war ended the soldiers went back into the community anonymously and to this day they're not sure how many or where exactly they are(the majority may well be in their 50's).
We did meet a survivor at the end of the day that has written a book about his experiences. He was one of the very few that is still alive to recount the brutality. To date none of the surviving Khmer Rouge has been brought to justice.
- comments
Sarah Scott It is hard to believe that this happened only 30 years ago and I like your point that it is still a 'live war crime site.' It's so shocking and brutal. Visiting the park, discussing it and writing about it keeps it alive in the memory as it should be, if only to remind us that these events happened to a nation of people - and should never happen again. Horrific.