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The Killing Fields and S21
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As you can imagine these are some of the most somber places I have ever been to. This was during the reign of the Khmer Rouge which ran from 1975 to 1979 during which time nearly 2 million people were killed. There are sites all over Cambodia but this one became one of the most famous because it had nearly 9000 victims including women and children.
When Pol Pot got control
one of his first mandates was to move everyone from every city out into the country side to work the land. People worked long hours and had very little food so hunger was rampant. The people were not allowed to talk to each other or show any signs of affection towards each other. Doing so would either have you moved to another site or to a "re-education camp" which normally meant death. Anyone with any type of previous education, which meant teachers, doctors, nurses etc, that was found out was brought to S21 (or Tuol Sleng) where they would be tortured for information on anyone else they might know. After that not only would they be killed but their whole family would be killed including the children as it was thought that if the kids were left alive they might grow up to become like their parents. Even wearing a pair of glasses was a sign of education and punishable by death.
The Killing Fields are located a few miles outside Phnom Penh and was chosen because it was the site of an old cemetery and was thought the bodies could be hidden here more easily. S21 was a school in Phnom Penh that was transformed into prison to house and torture people. S21 had somewhere in the region of 15,000 people pass through it of which only 12 survived.
We arrived by tuc-tuc to the Killing Fields and hired ourselves a guide who himself had lost family here. A memorial building has been erected with the skulls and clothing of nearly 8000 victims. But as you walk around there are bones, teeth and clothes still scattered around the site. Our guide told us that this was because of flood waters that would fill the area and take away some of the ground as it subsided so revealing more bones.
Victims were brought here in trucks where they were bound and forced to kneel down in front of one of the mass graves. To save ammunition people were killed using hammers, axe handles, bamboo sticks. They even used the leaves of a palm tree to cut off the heads of certain victims.
S21 or Tuol Sleng as mentioned earlier was a converted school. People were brought here where they were photographed and taken to a cell. In the cells they were shackled together on the ground without any kind of bedding or mats underneath them. Once here you were not allowed to talk or make any noise. Doing so would result in lashes or electric shocks. If you needed to adjust your position on the floor you had to ask permission first, again doing so without permission would result in punishment. As we walked through the prison we saw some of the torture implements that were used along with a picture on the wall showing how is was used.
Of all the things there one of the most shocking was the thousands of pictures of all those that passed through here on the walls. Even worse then that was those pictures of children that were brought here. As ya walked through these rooms you had it in the back of your head that only 12 survived so everyone you saw died here or was transported to the killing fields to be killed.
I don't think I can get across the extent of what I saw here in words but it really was an eye opener to come see.
One of the other things I can't get my head around is that even though this was all discovered in 1980 not one person from the Khmer Rouge has been brought to trial. And some of the key figure in the government at that time are still alive and living safely in parts of Cambodia. Talking to one guide I asked him why the people haven't done something themselves, he just said that they still have their own private army protecting them so the people can't do anything and the government keep promising that a trial will begin soon.
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