Sihaunouk
Ville
cont..
Koh Rong Sanglam cont..
|
but Soooo!
|
it was someone's birthday so the crew provided
sundown gin and tonic...how good does it get?
|
|
Phnom Penh -
The Killing Field
We returned to the capital to visit
the infamous Killing Fields and S21 (a torture camp).
From 17 April 1975 to December 1978
when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, between one and four million people died in what became known as the “killing fields”, at least
20 per cent of the population, the death toll increased by Khmer Rouge paranoia.
The methods of execution were
barbaric and the justification for individual deaths
incomprehensible.
Just outside the capital the
Cambodians have preserved just one of the many places of execution and
torture. every city and town had it's own location with
harrowing tales to tell.
|
The 17 storey-high Memorial Stupa
of Skulls erected at the Choeung Ek Genocide Centre, has a central
column of victims skulls.
|
|
|
The methods used to kill children and babies was
to beat them against this tree. They were also fed to crocodiles
in other locations
|
Bones and clothing remain as a memory.
|
Women were mass raped before being killed.
In order to save on bullets people were killed at night, their hands
bound behind their back made to kneel in front of the mass grave where
they were either stabbed or beaten with sticks on the back of the neck
until they fell into the grave.
|
An ankle shackle
|
|
Phnom Penh - S21
Tuol Sleng (poisonous hill or place) Genocide Museum
|
Previously a high school Toul Sleng was
established as a torture centre and prison in 1976. 1720 people
worked there involved in the torturing of people. A total of
10,499 people died here (not including children).
A very ordinary building surrounded by barbed
wire is split into three blocks. One block for the torture of
prisoners.
|
There are a number of torture
cells in which the original bed, shackles and instruments used
together with a photograph on the wall of the dead victim that was
found in there by the Vietnamese in 1978. The bodies of these
victims are buried outside the block
|
The gallows.
Victims hands were tied behind
their backs and they were then raised by the hands to the
crossbar. When they lost consciousness they were lowered and
plunged head first into the pot of cold water to start the process all
over again
|
Block 2
The Khmer Rouge destroyed all
historical records of their country but maintained meticulous records
of all their victims.
The photographs include babies,
children, men and women of all ages.
The reasons for execution were
trivial, e.g.. cautioning or assisting an elderly person to prevent
tripping would result in death.
Being sick and recovering would be
viewed as malingering because you were not sick in the first place
would see you taken away for 'schooling'. No one returned from
school. As a result many surviving children were very fearful of
school.
|
Leg shackles
|
|
|
Barbed wire was erected across the
front of the building after a pregnant woman committed suicide by
throwing herself off a second floor balcony.
|
Block 3
Individual cells crudely built to
house prisoners.
|
|
A water tank built with one purpose only..to
kill in a most horrific manner by self-drowning through fatigue
|
There were a number of paintings depicting life
in S21. These were painted by one of the seven survivors.
There are many accounts of the people who worked
in S21. It was clear that they had two options - kill or be
killed.
They however remain outcasts in the community.
|
Having visited the sites and read the accounts,
seen the photographs etc. It is still difficult to comprehend
how a regime could wreak such horror, terror and atrocities in such a
short period of time. We came away with questions as to
why?
The World looked away.
A piece of graffiti on the walls of S21...
'when it was a school no-one died, when it
was a prison no-one learned'
Will we ever?
|
Phnom
Penh - The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda
Similar to the Royal Palace in Bangkok, this is
the residence of the King.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kratie
A department store on legs!
|