Cambodian Genocide

While traveling to all of these wonderful places, and having such great experiences, you can't overlook the history of these countries. Cambodia suffered extremely through mass genocide by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. Even though the technical dates are these 4 years, the attacks and murders by the Khmer Rouge lasted until 1998. One third of the entire Khmer population was killed, from starvation, malnutrition and brutal tactics of the Khmer Rouge themselves. It was a sort of ethnic cleansing by ways of knocking out any western influence partaken of their own people. The wealthy, educated, military and government workers, and pretty much anyone who wasn't a peasant working out in the rural villages were banished from the cities, sent out to their demise. Disease was a major player in the deaths as medicine was a western invention and doctors were thoroughly educated. Many families lost all of their members and many more were left with only one or two survivors. Thousands made thier way to refugee camps in Vietnam and Thailand. And many of these refugees were sent away to live in other countries like Canada and USA. During their reign, the Khmer Rouge managed to impregnate the land with countless mines, which today, still kill and mame people. So, a little bit of history that most people in the world don't have any clue about. I think it's important to learn about all that has happened. In the capital, Phnom Penh, which was the first city to be evacuated on April 17th 1975, the Khmer Rouge used a vacated school house, Tuol Svay Prey High School, as a prison, called Toul Sleng or Security Prison 21 (S-21). It's estimated that 20,000 people entered S-21, including women and children. They were imprisoned, interrogated, tortured and then killed. While most of the victims were Cambodian, it is known that some British, Australians, and Americans were also imprisoned. At the end of the war, the stench of the dead bodies was what led the Vietnamese to find the prison. Only 7 victims were barely alive. Many of the prisoners were marched 15 km to the killing fields, Choeung Ek, outside of Phnom Penh. It's estimated that 17,000 people were exacuted and buried here in mass graves. Since 1980, 8,895 bodies have been excavated and the skulls sit in the 17 level memorial that has been built in rememberance. Not all of the mass graves have been excavated. This was one of the most difficult things to see in person. The skulls are catagorized according to gender and age. Truly heartbreaking to see the sea of lost lives.Underneath the 1st tier is a huge pile of the clothing that has been recovered with the remains. Walking around the actual mass graves, pieces of bone fragment, and clothing surface as the rains errode the soil. You can literally see it. I honestly felt wrong for taking pictures of these things, but I really wanted to share these terrible sites, in hope that more people would learn what has happened to this country. The brutality of the Khmer Rouge was beyond extreme in the fact that they didn't use guns to kill, they tortured, and starved and executed their own people with tools and handmade weapons. At Choeung Ek, there is a large tree, still standing, that they used to bash in babies heads by slamming them up against it. One of the excavated graves had only women and children in it, naked. In another, all of the corpses were headless. It was the most barbaric experience. I don't think anyone leaves after visiting this memorial without a tear stained face.

After all of this tradgedy, the Khmer people have done all they can to rebuild their country. They were truly some of the most warm and friendly people. If you have any interest in learning more about the Khmer Rouge genocide, I strongly suggest doing a little research. It's amazing to me that I never learned about this history in school.

Now, I took a few pictures of S-21 and Choeung Ek. Please take a look since you now know a little bit of the history, if you didn't already. There are also several biographical books about the misrule of the Khmer Rouge. I read Loung Ung's 'First they killed my father' and am currently reading her second book, 'Lucky Child'. They are worth the read.

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/KillingFieldsAndS21PrisonPhnomPenh