For the historically disinclined, the Khmer Rouge was a communist regime that took over the country in the mid-seventies backed by the North Vietnamese (and doubtlessly won support after America's campaign of carpet bombing in the late 60's and early 70's). The regime led by Pol Pot began a radical social restructuring that sought to turn "Democratic Kampuchea" into a classless agrarian state by evacuating cities and forcing everyone into labor camps. Thousands of dissidents were executed as were intellectuals and educated people (or even those that showed signs of learning such as wearing eye glasses). It is estimated that about 1.5 million--1/5th of the population--died, approximately half by execution and half by over-work or starvation. The fact that everyone knows about Hitler yet far fewer are aware of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge I think is an egregious deficit in our educational system and also suggests some real anglo-centrism.
So after breakfast, I hired a motorbike and we drove out of the city to the killing fields which are where many were executed (some simply bludgeoned to death to save ammo) and buried in mass graves. The first thing you're greeted with is a stupa erected to house many of the exhumed skulls--the most macabre pagoda I think I'll ever see:
Floor to ceiling were these...
Out in the fields there are just some footpaths that lead around the excavated pits. For some reason, I was able to hold it together there. Maybe the fact that we were just out in a field made the experience too abstract? I remember visiting a Nazi concentration camp with Arete in 2001 and nearly falling apart seeing the gas chambers and cremating ovens. Perhaps something in my brain just couldn't connect the grassy fields and chirping birds with the horrors that occurred there (it also didn't help that there was a group of Americans chattering away, laughing at who knows what and completely destroying any aura of solemnity. I was so very close to giving them a well-deserved shaming).
Back in town I visited Tuol Sleng or S-21, a school-cum-prison where people were "stored"for a lack of better word before heading to the killing fields. One part had a room full of the meticulously documented and photographed inmates. This is the saddest portrait I may ever see--a woman who knows and is utterly resigned to the terrible fate of her and her new born.
As I was leaving the museum, I bumped into Volker, jovial German guy who I was with on the Mekong Delta tour. He was just getting a start on the day and asked good-naturedly how my day was going. I couldn't find the words.
The rest of the day I spent between visiting the rather underwhelming national museum and the royal palace. It was very similar to the one in Bangkok so I'll leave it at that. The next morning I took a bus to Siem Reap which is the little town by Angkor Wat and have been here since. I'm too exhausted to give a full run down of the mega-wattage (nyurk nyurk) for now (got up at 4:30 this morning to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat!) but it was truly awesome. Look forward to some pictures soon!
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