As a warning, those without stout heart should be wary of this post. (Eh hem, mom.)
I debated with myself a lot about whether I should go through with this post, but I finally decided to post it, because I think that the magnitude of all the events that happened during the Khmer Rouge is not well enough known by many, so here goes.
The rain was a good reflection of our mood when we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, and the Choeng Ek Genocidal Center. (Aka The Killing Fields) First, we visited the Tuol Sleng Museum, formerly known as Office S.21. Previously, these buildings were used as elementary and high schools, but from 1975-1979, the 4 buildings were used as prison cells and interrogation rooms. Each classroom was divided into 8-10 prison cells, usually about .8x2 meters. There were no doors, because the prisoners were always chained by the ankle. You could still see the dried blood stained on the tiled floors. Each building is wrapped in layers of barbed wire, not to prevent anyone from escaping, but to prevent the prisoners from committing suicide by jumping from the 3rd floor. This particular security office, because it was located in Phnom Penh, housed the personal prisoners of the Khmer Rouge, including intellectuals, foreigners, political activists, and traitors. There was a rope climbing station in the courtyard, that was then used as a torture device. The prisoners were hung upside down until they fell unconscious, then splashed in the face with human waste in order to quickly regain consciousness, and continue the interrogation. On the way out of the museum were 2 of the survivors from this office, selling signed copies of their books. (I regret not buying one, now, but at the time, I wasn't particularly in the mood to read anything more about this.) over 20,000 people died at this office alone, and there were only 7 survivors. They survived because they were artists, musicians, or engineers that could help with the propaganda of the Khmer Rouge.
After this particularly enlightening museum, Peace Corps was kind enough to buy us all pizza. Per van, there was (supposed to be) 1 vegetarian pizza, 1 seafood, 1 meat lover's, and 1 chicken barbecue. All delicious. Only downside was that we had to eat it all in the van, on the way to the next museum. Good thing I did my laundry this morning.
Next stop was "The Killing Fields." This was where they took those about to die and those already dead. This place was discovered in 1980, when after a flood, some potato farmers found loads of washed up bones. They didn't use guns to kill anyone there, because bullets were too expensive, and only used for the war against Vietnam. People were thus killed by any number of objects, usually beaten with stones or axes, or by simply cutting their throats. Thousands of babies were killed by being smashed against trees. This was because under the Khmer Rouge regime, when one member of a family is executed for some reason, the rest of the family is also executed, so that there is no one left to try to take revenge. The bodies were then thrown into dozens of pits. Sometimes people who were only almost dead were thrown into the puts as well. They also had a chemical facility which helped to block the smell of decay, and also loudspeakers to drown out the sounds of those about to die.
At the very beginning of the Khmer Rouge, all of the Cambodian people were forced to evacuate to the countryside. Huge cities became ghost towns. Most of these people had just recently fled to the cities to escape the bombs coming from American planes during the Vietnam war. In the countryside, they were forced to work 20 hours per day farming and building dams, on less than 1/4 of a can of rice. Hospitals were evacuated, and the ill were also forced to work in these same conditions. Those who didn't follow the rules, or made any sort of mistake were taken to one of the prison offices, or killed on the spot. Near the time when extreme malnutrition set in, the government began enforcing forced marriages, because not enough children were being born. Each day, hundreds of people were gathered to marry someone whom they probably had never met before.
No one is completely sure why all of this happened, we know that Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, was extremely paranoid, but we don't know why. He studied engineering in Paris, where he learned all of these extreme ideologies, along with the other leaders of the regime. In the end, the Khmer Rouge lasted for 3 years, 8 months, and 20 days, with several million deaths. In 1979, Vietnam finally invaded Cambodia, and took over Phnom Penh all in less than an hour. The Vietnamese ruled for many decades after that, until the United Nations finally came to an agreement to intercede. Cambodia was declared to be in a state of peace in 1991.
This particular genocide has a lot of differences from others in history, but the main one for me is that everyone around me over the age of 34 was alive during this time. I'm not sure specifically how my family was involved, (mostly because of the language barrier) but everyone was affected. I've heard so many times of how someone's parents, or sister or brother was killed during this time. You really don't know what to say to that.
