Like Nazi Germany, you wonder how any group can kill large
portions of their population for no apparent reason. In Cambodia it was
genocide—killing across all groups of people in the country.
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge came to power in the mid 1970s,
promising a utopian communist solution to all the country’s problems. Today
this is called extreme communism in the country because the Communist Party is
still the largest political party in the country. The goal was to return Cambodia
to “earlier times”. Everyone in the city was told to go back to their family
homes in the country and become farmers. Schools and healthcare institutions were
dissolved and the Intelligencia—teachers, doctors, lawyers and all educated
people—were traitors to this new environment. So they were killed. From 1975 to
1979 at least 1.7 million Cambodians were killed by this regime, 21% of the
Cambodian population at that time.
Interestingly, like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge kept records
and pictures of the prisoners, even the ones tortured to death, so a lot of
families were able to gain closure about what happened to family members, but
not all. Our guide, who was 15 when Pol Pot came to power, lost his father and
they have no idea where or how. He could not grieve because he could then be
executed as a traitor. He had to act like his father was wrong and the action
was appropriate.
In 1977, the number of killings increased, according to
records. There had been a couple coup attempts against Pol Pot, so members of
the Khmer Rouge also became suspect and were executed if someone turned them
in. An estimated 25% of the Khmer Rouge was executed from 1977-1979.
Cambodia has chosen to memorialize the victims in 2 places.
The first is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is housed in S-21—the secret
designation for Security Department site 21. It is housed in an old high
school, which had been closed. In 1979, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and Pol
Pot was removed from power. The Khmer Rouge disappeared into the jungles. When
S-21 was liberated, 11 bodies were found and 7 prisoners still alive. Those
prisoners were allowed to live because they had skills the Khmer Rouge needed:
watchmaker, photographers, etc. Picture 1 shows the courtyard of S-21,
including the graves of the last 11 victims.
Prisoners were chained to their beds, like the one shown in
Picture 2. The wooden box was their toilet and the each had a bowl for their
Spartan meals. They were tortured until they confessed that they were members
of the CIA, KGB or some other “bad” group of people. With the confession, the
Khmer Rouge now had a reason to kill them and they were sent to the Killing
Fields (more later).
Picture 3 shows the rules of the prison. As stated, torture
was mostly electric shock and lashes, although there was some evidence of
hanging from a gallows and shoving heads in filthy water. After prisoners
started committing suicide in prison by jumping from the 3rd floor,
barbed wire was placed around the porches, shown in Picture 4.
As mentioned earlier, there were 7 survivors of S-21. Two
are still alive today. Picture 5 show Rick with Chum Mey, one of the 2
survivors. He spends most days at S-21 and sells books, including the one he
wrote called “Survivor”. We have it and look forward to reading it.
The prisoners who “confessed” were taken to Choeung Ek, one
of an estimated 300 Killing Fields throughout Cambodia. This one is close to
Phnom Penh and today has been turned into the Choeng Ek Genocidal Center.
Picture 6 shows the Memorial Stuppa for the estimated 20,000 people they found
buried here. The memorial is chilling. Inside the superstructure of the stuppa
is a huge glass-enclosed case of rows and rows of skulls (over 8000) and other
bones of the victims. Picture 7 gives some idea of the immensity. Picture 8
shows just one layer. Where enough evidence remained, the skulls have been
analyzed and marked male or female, along with the method of execution. Most
were killed by trauma to the head. Bullets were too expensive, so logs and metal
bars were used to smash heads and necks.
Picture 9 shows one of the areas where 450 bodies were found
in a mass grave. 86 mass graves have been excavated at this site. There’s an estimated 43
more that have not been excavated.
Whole families were often brought for execution. The Killing
Tree in Picture 10 was used for killing small children. The children were held
by their feet and their heads smashed against the tree. Nearby a mass grave was
found with just women and children.
Unfortunately, time and weather cause the ground to shift
and there are bodies still to find. Unfortunately, bones and remnants of
clothing continue to rise to the surface, like those in Picture 11. As they
emerge, guests will retrieve the bones and place them in a pile, waiting for
proper treatment and identification.
We asked our guide what children are taught today about this
period of time. He told us that if we had a younger guide we would hear a
different story. Children are taught that Pol Pot was a very bad man and caused
all of this. They are told to forgive the Khmer Rouge because they had to
follow orders or be killed. There is some truth to this, but this is still a
country where the Communist Party (Khmer Rouge) still yields much influence.
Why do we visit places like this? Because we want to
remember. One hopes that if everyone understands the terrible things human
beings do to other human beings, the killings will stop and the world will be a
better place. One hopes….
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