Day 11 Part 2 – S21prison and the killing fields
The prison was an old school which the Khymer Rouge used to torture people until they confessed and then took them out to the killing fields. It was another sobering, thoughtful day. Hundreds of photos of all the detainees and photos of dead and being tortured photos. Horrific. We then went on to the killing fields, now known as the genocide centre. This was previously a peaceful chinese cemetary and now it is a peaceful place of rememberance. There are flowers and trees around the many mass graves (129) which coyld hold up to 430 corpses. Some had been excavated and the skulls saved as evidence. There were men, women and children and so far, 2 foreigners who have not been identified but dna tests are now being done. There is a monument housing over 8000 skulls in the middle of the ‘park’ which was built in 1988. We left in sombrw moid after seeing how the bones and clothing coming up from the ground after the rains. Man’s inhumanity to man, woman and child! The tribunals are still taking place with many many Khymer Rouge officers now in government postions. Amazing! Needless to say it was Happy Hour when i got back to the
hotel and vodka and tonic were 2 for 1 so i had 4!
i needed to let it go. I went up and had a shower and took myself out to the Foreign Correspondent Club and had a shrimp green curry and rice. Lovely! I walked home and peomptly fell asleep knowing i had no wake up call! Bliss. Bye for now folks!
Freejan