SE Asia: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge

New Year's Day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia had a decidedly less festive feeling than New Year's Eve. Our first stop was the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Pol Pot began his career as a Buddhist monk before turning to revolutionary communism. My knowledge of the Khmer Rouge was pretty limited before visiting Cambodia, but they certainly deserve a spot in the list of most evil regimes ever. Anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of Cambodia's population was killed during this time, either by execution or from starvation. You can still see the effects of this today. Half of Cambodia's current population is under 18 years old.

Tuol Sleng was a high school-turned-prison that held about 17,000 men, women and children during its 4-year history. Out of that number, only 7 survived. The inmates were massacred just before the North Vietnamese (yes, that other local oppressive regime) liberated the prison in 1974. The stories were unbelievably grisly, pretty much everything you'd expect from such a place - torture, starvation, rape and worse. The cells are still standing, so you could see the tiny rooms they were forced into. They weren't allowed to talk to their neighbors or do anything without the permission of their guards. Most of their "crimes" ranged from being an intellectual or other undesirable to simply being related to one of the former. The stories were heartbreaking and displayed all around the museum. During our visit, we saw a man standing in one of the cells, speaking through a tour guide/translator. He was one of the seven survivors, and he visits the jail regularly to share his experience and make sure that what he and thousands of others suffered here is not forgotten.

After the Genocide Museum, we went to the Killing Fields. A large stupa monument to the victims was built just at the entrance in the typical ornate Khmer style. It is only when you get closer that you can see through the glass. All the human remains found on the Fields are housed within, a gruesome collection of skulls and bones. This was done in accordance with the Buddhist belief that all the body can't find peace unless all its remains are together.



Despite all the bones within the stupa, not all of the remains have yet been recovered. Walking through the peaceful meadow, our guide found a tooth in the path. There are bits of cloth strewn around everywhere and the occasional bone can be seen sticking up from the ground. There are sunken pits all around that were once filled with dead and dying bodies, even newborn babies (Pol Pot didn't want them to grow up with a sense of vengeance against his government after their parents were killed). If all this wasn't heartbreaking enough, there is the fact that most of the Khmer Rouge still have not been brought to justice. Pol Pot escaped to the jungle and lived there as a fugitive until his death in the 1990s. Many other prominent members are in the current Cambodian government, our guide told us, as he looked around to make sure there was no one to overhear him. In the last year, the UN has brought some of them to trial, but there's still a long way to go before this country can truly recover from such a horrific history.