Cambodia's Bloody History

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  Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

IMH: Phnom Penh, Cambodia's Capital, is situated at the confluence of three great rivers - known as 'Chaktamuk' or the 'Quatre Bras' (four faces or four arms) of Mekong, Tonle Sap and Bassac rivers. Phnom Penh is also the country's commercial, economic and political hub.
 
We only had one and a half day to explore the city, but that was more than sufficient to get a grasp as to how the Khemer Rouge's reign in the late 1970's crippled the country. 
 
A very friendly tuk-tuk driver persuaded us that his service is the best upon greeting us at our bus-stop on arrival from Siem Reap. He helped us find a great hotel to stay in (he probably gets a commission, but it was cheaper than the average going rate and a beautifully new boutique hotel) and he also took us around Phnom Penh the following day.
 
Before arriving in Cambodia I was ignorant and uninformed as to what has happened there. Thailand conveniently keep their neighbours' hardship at bay from tourists. Now, visiting Cambodia, I am sorry I did not spend less time in tourist rich Thailand and more time in Cambodia

Phnom Penh at night

. I'll try to explain the Cambodian Genocide History in brief in my limited understanding from visiting the Choeung Ek Memorial (The Killing fields), about 18 kilometres outside Phnom Penh and the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21). The other destinations such as the Wat Phnom (a Buddhist place of worship, also referred to as Pagoda), the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda was nice to see, but almost not worth mentioning.
 
A communist group of Cambodians, run by a man known as Pol Pot, over threw the Cambodian government in April 1975 and killed nearly 2 million Cambodians across the country from 1975 to 1979 from workers, farmers, engineers, technicians, intellectuals, professors, teachers, ministers and diplomats. In short, Vietnam assisted to fight the communist group who was over thrown early 1980's. In this process the communists fled Phnom Penh up North and to the borders of Thailand and Vietnam, planting landmines all over, especially along the borders to protect them. These landmines still cause disabilities today and they are found by farm workers and peasants.
 
One of the many killing fields in Cambodia is Choeung Ek where a memorial, filled with the excavated skulls from the mass graves, has been erected. There is no need to go into the details of the cruelty these people had to endure.
 
The Toul Sleng Genocide Museum is the former S-21 prison, which "was the most secret organ of the Khmer Rouge regime. S-21 stands for Security Office 21.

Cambodian street kids

It was specifically designed for the interrogation and extermination of anti-Angkar (what the Khmer Rouge stood for) elements. Almost 15,000 people were killed here alone over the Khemer Rouge reign, yet, the surviving Khemer Rouge senior Ministers do not acknowledge the existence of this prison even to today.
 
Just by visiting these two sites, it was clear how the country has been crippled and the people affected. Many people were recruited by the Khemer Rouge during their reign to perform horrible deeds, or be killed themselves. This includes children as soldiers.
 
Our first really difficult encounter with a land mine victim (in your face reality in Cambodia) was when a guy with no legs and no arms hopped into the restaurant on the river we were having a drink at. He had one deformed toe protruding in which Ryan deposited the little contribution we made. Needless to say, we saw many more together with abandoned and street children. We completely blew our daily budget on tips, a small contribution to beggars and powder milk for street babies. Many kids look mal-nourished with huge heads, big round bellies and stick thin limbs. This of course, is also not right as we fed their dependence on tourists' contributions, but I could not turn a blind eye - it was terribly upsetting. More so after seeing the bands, consisting of land mine victims who have been blinded or mutilated, playing at the Temples in Siem Reap.
 
Cambodia has by far been the most difficult country to visit so far looking at people's pain and hardship

Killing fields

. I know now that we need to find a way to keep contributing, not necessarily to Cambodia, but also other struggling countries back home in Africa and South Africa on a continuous basis and not only by means of financial contributions.
 
 We have decided to contribute 2 weeks of our time per year, together as a family, in some sort of contribution. If we have children one day I would like for them to join us, where ever we go, to see how lucky we are and how we can help less fortunate people. How? By teaching English, some sort of skill, even sex education and how to use condoms (which is almost non-existent in Cambodia) we'll be able to contribute. We hope to get involved with an organisation or a Christian Church in which we can contribute a small piece in a big picture and we hope to start in Africa.
 
I've often thought about this on our trip - how we can contribute, but was never sure if it's really executable until we met a doctor, a specialist in Internal Medicine form Munich, who comes to Phnom Penh each year for a few weeks to assist in transferring knowledge to local doctors at a Public Hospital in Phnom Penh. We met him at the FCC (Foreign Correspondence Club, where many Western journalist and correspondents met and hid during the Khmer Rouge reign). We had a great time and many intellectual conversations about many world economies and he also took us to a restaurant which were run by "friends", a programme which takes street children and train them to cook, run a restaurant and deal with customers (especially English) - i.e. gives them an income... and the food and service was great.
 
Ryan is amazing with the children and should most certainly do something with the kids. The kids are amused with the tall, bold-headed guy joking with them and quickly warm-up to him and give him hugs and tell stories (even if it's not in English). We were amazed at how intelligent some of the kids, aged 6 ,7, 8 are which have regular contact with tourists and can speak in 5+ languages! 

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Child soldiers recruited by the Khmer Rouge Regime	Independance Monument	Wat Phnom	Royal Palace
Street sports	Street hygiene	Doing as the locals do	The Fish Market - live Catfish
More Fish including live Eels	Fruit & Veg	Hot chili	Deliciously roasted crickets and cockroaches
Dried fish	Buy your dollars here, cheap	Efficient transport	A road trip
Choeung Ek Memorial (Killing Fields)	Killing Fields Memorial	Skulls excavated from those who were killed	Killing fields
Killing fields	Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21)	One of the cells in the S-21 Prison	S-21 - How prisoners where shackled
Remembering those who died	Remembering those who died	Remembering those who died	S-21 Prisoner
S-21 Prisoner	S-21 Prisoner	S-21 Prisoner	S-21 Prisoner
S-21 Prisoner	S-21 Prisoner	Small individual cells	Torture tools
S-21	Water lilies in the palace ponds	Tuk-tuk and cyclo	East meets West
Bats on-route to their sleeping tree

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