The Killing Fields and S-21

That's a rib bone sticking out of one of the mass graves at Cheoung Ek or, The Killing Fields.

These are the shackles used to keep prisoners tied to the beds.  Specifically, these ones are for children.

Those indentations are the mass graves themselves at Cheoung Ek.

There are 8,000 excavated skulls in a buddhist stuppa at Cheoung Ek.  Most of them have large holes in them.  The Khmer Rouge refused to "waste" a bullet on people they believed were political spies or traitors.

CNN is running a story about Duch and the rest of the S-21 keepers who killed over 17,000 people in their, well, concentration camp from 1975 to 1979.  Even looking at the pictures on CNN, it doesn't do justice to what you see when you're there.  

We walked past a tree at Cheuong Ek that said, "This tree used to kill babies".  They used to beat babies against a tree and, if they didn't die, they'd toss them in the air and catch them on their bayonets.  When you go to S-21, you can STILL see where the blood was on the floor.  The floor has a large, somewhat brownish stain that takes up a good part of the center of the room.  THAT IS STILL BLOOD.  From 1979.

I'm glad that the people of Cambodia can know that justice is being sought.  30 years after the fact, you can tell that it effects people almost daily.  There are STILL not enough teachers to teach a full day of school.  Children have to go in shifts.  Almost anyone you talk to has lost someone because of the Khmer Rouge.

I guess my question is, why do we let it keep happening? 

Cambodia, Part 1: Sadness

S-21, the high school turned concentration camp in Phnom Penh

   If you look closely, you can see bones in the ground along with the clothes.



This past Christmas was spent in Cambodia. We spent a few days in Phnom Penh (P-nom. We were told that the Vietnamese call it "Nom" Penh and that is WRONG) and a few days in Siem Reap.

We visited sites associated with the Khmer Rouge on the first day.

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge moved people from the cities to the country and started what they called "Year Zero", turning back time to a "utopian" agrarian society.  They killed all doctors, teachers, and anyone wearing glasses (a sign of intelligence).  

Our tour guide Wan Tay told us that he was lucky because only three of his brothers were killed during the time of the Khmer Rouge.  Two million people died during this time.  Many of the skulls we saw had large holes...because the Khmer Rouge refused to use a bullet on people they believed were traitors.

Cheoung Ek was a small town that became the burial fields for S-21, essentially the concentration camp for "political prisoners".  Of the over 17,000 people who were kept at S-21, only 4 people survived.  At The Killing Fields (Thank you, Sam Waterston), there is a tree with a sign that points out that this is where children and infants were beaten against the trunk to kill them.  If they didn't die, they were then tossed in the air and caught on the end of a bayonet.

I get so angry when I talk about these things.  How could people do this?  How can people do this?  My friend told me that people can't reconcile the loving God and the angry God, but that our love of something can bring out our anger when the object of our love is hurt.  The Cambodian people are STILL suffering from the Khmer Rouge.   There aren't enough teachers in the schools because so many were killed.  There are still 6 million landmines dotting the country.  Adults will cut off the limbs of the children so that, when they beg for foreigners, they will get more money.

What about Darfur?  Every time I see something about Darfur, I can't help but think about Cambodia.  We always say that this will NEVER happen again.  And still...

As uncomfortable as I felt in Cambodia at times, I think I fell in love with it almost immediately.  I hope that I can go back someday, on the back of a motor bike.