Phnomn Penh like bangkok is a frenetic and Chaotic city that has the ability to both shock and enchant. It, and its people, has been through so much in its recent history. It has spent the past 37 years recovering from the largest case of genocide in living memory. More disturbing, in many ways, than the crimes of WWII. Between 1975 and 1978 The Kahmer Rouge inforced a belief that is beyond my comprehension. They enforced a ruling that saw all organisation and logic wiped from their country. To create a state of fear. They closed schools, hospitals and turned them into detention and torture centres. Here they help anyone they felt went against their beliefs. Rich, poor and educated alike were taken here to suffer before their enevitable deaths. They wiped out all forms of money within the country so their were no rich or poor. They evacuated the cities and send all its occupants into the countryside to farm rice.
We visited the Killing Fields, this was a very emotionally confusing and distressing day. This is a camp where people were taken to their slaughter. They did not use bullets as this was an expensive option so they used bambo, farming tools, cart axels and bludgened their victims to death. And for children and babies they simply used a tree. In all 17,000 were murdered in these three years, men, women and children alike. Whole families wiped out so the children would not bring vengance later in life. Today they have created a site of respect for the dead, the site tells the story of the crimes suffered by the cambodia people. Here they store all the skulls of the victims, many of which show evidence of how the victim had been taken from this world. In the grounds around the mass graves there are peices of clothing, bone and teeth protruding from the paths and surrounding area.
A truely harrowing experience.
|
