S-21 and the Killing Fields
---Warning - not that I got graphic, but this is a very emotional entry for me, and speaks of death, dying and torture.---
Remember yesterday, and how I thought and said, that the COPE center would likely be the saddest part of my trip, well, I was wrong.
Ignorance goes a long way to secure peace of mind, and today, some of my peace of mind about human kind was taken away.
I had a lack of knowledge about the country I was about to visit today. Really, I could have done more to look up and find out what the history of Cambodia was/is, but I was busy with my own life, my own problems, which, overall, is nothing compared to the state Cambodia was in between April 17, 1975 to January 8th, 1979. (mind you, April 17th (1984), is my birthday, and all this horror I will just briefly touch on, started 9 years before I was born).
So first, about my overall reactions. I was unaware of the problems in the 70s that Cambodia went through. I wasn't taught about it in school. I was barely even taught about the 'conflicts' in Vietnam. I feel that the situation in Southeast Asia from the 1970s is just not discussed with my generation, and knowing more now, I feel sorry for my generation. I feel we should know more, so we can do more.
In the beginning of 1975, Cambodia's population was 8 million strong. There was freedoms of religion, speech, and the ability to vote in a prime minister. By April 17th of that year, a new regime of politics was brought in... this is not something I will even pretend to comprehend, but I will just state what I learned today.
April 17th, 1975 started with a lot of cheering and happiness, as the new prime minster, whose name I am leaving out so I won't be quoted in some high schooler's paper one day, was brought into power. By that evening, there was no more cheering.
The people of the city I am staying in now, Phnom Phem (the capital of Cambodia), were all told to move out of the city to rural areas. All supporters of the past regime were soon to meet a horrible fate. Anyone who spoke out about the new regime was soon to meet a horrible fate. Anyone who had friends, who disobeyed, who merely was in the wrong place at the wrong time... was about to meet a horrible fate.
Again, in the beginning of 1975, the population was 8 million, by the liberation in 1979, the population of Cambodia was.......2 million.
Where did those 6 million people go?
Those 6 million people, died. Either by poor nutrition while sitting in jails, of by execution on the spot, at killing fields or at their homes. Either for no reason, or for personal revenge, or standing up for the rights of being human.
Who did this to the Cambodians? Fellow Cambodians.
This was not a war amougst countries. This was not a fight with bombs and crossing enemy lines. This was one neighbor turning on another.
Today I saw a prison that held over 6000 people in it's time. S-21. Before 1975 it was a high school. A place of knowledge and education. From 1975 to 1979... there were only 7. SEVEN. people who made it out alive from S-21 that were there as prisoners. 7 people out of thousands, and and estimated 20,000 children that were not documented.
Today, I saw torture devices. Not from 300 years ago... but from 35 years ago. Today, I saw wooden swing sets used for PE during the high school days, that were ultimately used to torture, and then hang people. Imagine, your swing set at your school growing up, being used to kill your father and mother.
Today, I saw blood stained tiles. I saw 0.2 meters by 2 meter cells that stored humans, as they waited, in silence to die. I saw photographic evidence of all that went on in the prison. I met one of the 7 survivors. Today, was sad.
As if visiting S-21 wasn't enough, we took the 16 kilometer drive (that the prisoners who could walk, did by foot, and the ones who couldn't were shoved in trucks), to one of the largest Killing Fields in the area. It was the center point for 3 large cities.
I have to say, the Killing Field, despite being used for what it was... was beautiful. The nature, trees, birds and scenery was calming. If you stumbled upon this place with out knowing the history, one would never guess the horrors 6 inches below their feet.
There are over 150 holes that were/are filled with dead bodies, from the four years that Cambodia destroyed itself. Only in this Killing Filed alone... there are over 325 other places just like it scattered through this small country.
Not all the bones, and bodies have been evacuated. In fact, today, I saw teeth, and bones, that had just been washed up from the erosion caused by a rain earlier in the week. I saw clothing off of bodies, still 1/2 buried in the ground. I saw the excavated skulls and bones of thousands of people. thousands.
Where the land should spread into a level field, there were holes 2 feet deep, marked and stated to have held a 100+ bodies each. I saw trees... trees used as killing devices. Given nicknames by the soliders. I saw marks in a tree from where babies were smashed and killed. Where people were hanged. Where death took over.
I saw so much death today. Death brought on by...nothing. By a change in government, caused by friends and neighbors. I looked into hundreds of skulls, I looked where their eyes would have been, and tried to remember them, even though, before today, I had no idea that this genocide had occurred.
How can people continue to do this to one another? How can you shoot your neighbor in the head, and rape their wives, and kill their children? How can the greed of mankind lead to the death of 6 million people of the same race?
I am by no means saying I understand wars between countries, and between races. By no means do I understand death or murder or killings, and I will never pretend to... but what really gets to me with this whole experience... is how do you kill your neighbor, brother, family...how do you kill your own blood and your own race? How do you go on after this?
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As of the end of 2010... Cambodia went from 2 million people in 1980 to a population of 12 million people in 2010. There is major poverty everywhere. There is remittence of what went on, but all in all this is a young country, that I wouldn't be surprised, to one day be a positive force in the world....
....that is, if we don't kill each other in the world, in the mean time.
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I did not want to take any pictures of this day. But I did. They will not be posted online for now. When I return, I will have no problem, talking, discussing and showing pictures I took from this day with anyone. I am overwhelmed by what I saw today, by what I felt, and what I learned. I also did not write all I learned today here. I urge, if you did not know about Cambodia's genocide, to read about it.
As cheesy as it sounds, knowledge is power. Perhaps, knowing about the lives lost in this place, along with all the other ones, we each can become better people.
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Uploaded and sent from an iPad that's exploring Southeast Asia. Please try not to mind the typos and spelling errors. Autocorrect does some funny things.
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