We had a long travel day ahead of us, not because the distance between Koh Rong and Phnom Penh is great, but rather because of the slow cruise back to the mainland coupled with the busy traffic on the country’s roads.
The bus ride was rather interesting. Driving out of Sihanoukville, we drove behind a bunch of teenagers doing wheelies on their scooters – while riding pillion! We endured the traffic nightmare that is Phnom Penh at rush hour. We dodged in between trucks and scooters and oncoming traffic on a single-lane road with scary abandon. Let’s just say, I was happy we were not driving at night.
Although Phnom Penh was a short visit, we really had only one important stop to make.
In recent history on the international stage, Cambodia has unfortunately not been best known for wonderful sights like Angkor Wat, but rather for civil war, Pol Pot and the deadly Khmer Rouge regime. Things are definitely changing for the better as the country recovers from the atrocities committed over the last 40 years.
Today we went to see two of the more notorious sites that have dominated Cambodia’s recent history – The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng Security Prison (S-21). While I would not call either a tourist “attraction” as such, much like Auschwitz, they are both a memorial for the dead and a testament to what happened here. For a long time not much was known about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge but hopefully enough people come here and see these places and learn that this should not be permitted to reoccur in future in any other place in the world.
We started with a stop at S-21. Almost all the prisoners that were detained in this former high school were to be executed after lengthy torture sessions that would last months. Of the almost 20,000 people known to have been processed here, only seven survived. Any person who was educated, who could speak a second language, who lived in an urban area, who wore glasses, who could not farm, or who had soft hands, was considered an enemy of the state.
The entrance to S-21 with the old high school buildings on the left
The school is situated in the middle of a quiet neighbourhood in the centre of Phnom Penh. The buildings have been left much as they were back in 1979 when the regime fell, with school rooms converted into cells and torture chambers.
The authorities kept substantial records on each prisoner detailing biographies, photos and of course their forced confessions. Every photo – many of young children – stared back at us like ghosts from the past. It was scary to hear about the madness and absolute horror of the time and realise what people could do to one another in the name of meaningless ideology. We were also privileged to meet one of only two survivors today, Bou Meng, on our way out.
We then took a short ride to Choeung Ek, better known as the Killing Fields. Inevitably, if you were interred at S-21,your final destination would be here. Back in the 70’s, this was a small rural farming village. Today the site has 129 communal mass graves – 43 of which have been left untouched. Still to this day, under heavy rains, clothes, rags and human bones get washed up to the surface. A memorial stupa houses over 8000 skulls of people bludgeoned to death in order to save precious bullets.
The memorial stupa at Choeung Ek is not an easy place to visit
It is so peaceful here today, masking the horrors that unfolded only three decades ago. Our visit was both harrowing and moving but we are glad we got to see this place with our own eyes.
When I went to Auschwitz a few years back it was horrible to think that these sorts of things happened so recently. Although I knew of the Killing Fields, today I was shocked that this happened in my life time. The really scary thing is to think that this is happening again, right now – today!
A very moving sight at Choeung Ek where most of the children were killed