Alrighty my last full day in Cambodia...
Today was our tour day to see the city and its sordid past...
This morning we went to the Palace and the National museum...which in my opinion were rather boring...but if you're an art buff than you'll love it...lot's of sculptures and artifacts...
Our last stop before lunch was Choeung Ek...for those of you who don't know...this is one of the biggest killing fields in Cambodia...only 30 years ago...people were being murdered at an alarming rate by the Pol Pot [Politician Potential...apparently] regime...there are 343 killing fields across Cambodia and as many as 10000 mass graves...at Choeung Ek there are over 8000 skeletons discovered so far...but potentially there could be double that buried on the property as part of the land is submerged under water...
The particularly shocking parts of these killing fields is the methods that they used...rather than wasting bullets, they would hit people into the graves with iron rods and later behead them with the strong branch of the sugar palm tree...for some ladies and children, they would simply grab their legs and swing them against a tree or club them until they died...I realize that this is rather gruesome but this story needs to be told...it's estimated that around 2 million people died in four years [1976 - 1979] by the Pol Pot Regime...the population at the time was somewhere in the 6 million range...thus they effectively did away with a third of their poulation...the first people to be executed were the intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, etc. anyone who couldn't be easily swayed to the regime's concepts...
On a lighter note, our lunch was very good...we went to another restaurant that gives back to the community and the food was once agian wonderful!
After lunch we went to Tuol Sleng, which used to be a high school...but the regime used it as a torture and detainment building...thankfully the pol pt regime kept records and photographs of all the people who went in and out of Tuol Sleng...so the pictures off all those who suffered are on the walls, reminding people of the horrors that happened to real people...not just numbers on a page...the humanizing aspect to the museum is even more shocking and it leaves a very deep impression on people who visit...
Out of the thousands of people who went through Tuol Sleng, only 7 survived [one was a construction worker, one could paint, etc.]
The fact that something like this could happen as the rest of the world just stands by is shocking...especially when people say it will never happen again...but history is always repeating itself and even now...we find countries on the brink of civil war or genocide...and we can't bring ourselves to help...
But upon seeing the museum, the futility of all the senseless killings puts things into perspective...personally I think that more world leaders should visit and maybe they'd be more adamant about helping [not fighting in...] other countries...
And the other tragic thing is that there are still millions of landmines preventing the Cambodian people from living their lives...these were given to the Khmer Rouge by other countries and now the only people held accountable for these actions are the innocent Cambodians...And countries are still making landmines [U.S., China, Russia...] even though the devastating effects of these bombs never reach the intended 'criminals' but the innocents...
I apologize for my rant there...but my trip today inflamed me with things to say...
On a lighter note...the Cambodians have been making great strides in becoming a nation, with setbacks of course as their government is still composed of several people from the former Khmer Rouge Regime and their economy is affected very strongly by tourist dollars...however despite all these setbacks they are doing well for themselves
Cheers
Ali
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