Pnom Penh- the brutal past

     The city of Pnom Penh is not a favorite in my book. The city is quite large and dirty and much too hectic for my liking. But nonetheless, Pnom Penh is not a city that I would skip and I’ll tell you why. The main draw for the city is the S-21 Prison and the killing fields. Both of which are heavy and hard to hear about but also very informative and moving. Some of what I have written or photos I’ve taken are quite graphic so some people may not wish to continue reading this post.

     The S-21 Prison used to be a school and when Pol Pot took over, he made it into one of the most brutal prisons around. Over 20,000 prisoners went in, and you could count the number of survivors on your fingers. They used the facility for brutal torture and forced prisoners to admit to crimes they hadn’t committed. Many of them were the people Pol Pot feared most; the intellectual people. Doctors, teachers, scientists, and their families, along with anyone else suspected of being in the movement against him. Each and every prisoner who entered had their photo taken and those photos can be seen in rows in some of the rooms. They’re faces stare hauntingly back at me and I was brought to tears just thinking of the cruelty they would soon encounter. There were also photographs of some of the inmates after they had been killed, and different forms of the torture they had to endure. I walked through rows of “cells” that were just miniature spaces made of wood or brick where men, women and children spent their days. It’s incredibly haunting and you can’t help but feel a connection to these people. I left there with their faces burned into my mind. I knew I needed to do the killing fields the same day. It was intense and hard to do but I thought it would be easier to do them together and not spread them out into multiple days.

     I couldn’t eat when we left the prison. I felt sick. My friends got some food and then we got a tuk tuk ride out over the bumpy road to the now-serene killing fields. Upon arrival I was surprised by how calm and beautiful the area looked despite the disgusting massacre that had taken place. They give you a headset and you follow the numbers at your own pace and look at each spot and listen. It’s very informative and heart wrenching at the same time. The area is covered in mass graves where hundreds of bodies have been found; some groups headless and other areas just bones. There are clothes and teeth and small things that keep coming up from the earth when it rains, constantly more being uncovered. I learned that they brought prisoners there blindfolded with no idea where they were, and killed them; more than 300 innocent human beings a day who had families and loved ones who would never see or hear from them again. The most shocking and powerful image to me was the killing tree. The killing tree is where soldiers would brutally murder women and children, bashing their heads on the tree and throwing them into a pile. When it was found, there were traces of hair, brain, and other parts of the body that did not belong there. The tree is now covered in bracelets left by anyone who felt a need to reach out, and try to bring comfort and a bit of peace to this awful site. At the end of the walk, you hear an eerie song come through your head phones and you can get a slight feeling of what it must have been like. It was a humbling experience that makes me appreciate even more all I've been given in this life!

     One thing that really gets me is that this wasn't happening that long ago. Some 40 or so years. These awful crusades can happen at any time.. Something to think about.

I appreciate and am thankful for every one of you :)