The beauty and the horror of Phnom Penh
I had heard from some trevelers that Cambodia was a difficult country, with agressive people and horror on the streets. My own opinion is totally different. I find people very friendly around here. It is true that they come to you a bit more agressively than in Laos or Thailand, but after being here for a couple of days, and getting to know their history a little bit, I find them charming
I’m gonna tell you a bit of what happend here in Cambodia. It is a sad story, and I can’t belive that almost no one that hasn’t being in South East Asia knows about it, including myself.
Cambodia was sucked into the war in Vietnam. The US army and the South Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia to fight the Vietnamese communist hiding in this country. This end up in killings of inocent people and the formation of a militia called the Khmer Rouge, Khmer being the name of the ancient tribe in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh, the capital, in 1975 just before Saigon was taken by the communist as well.
Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge’s leader, was welcomed into the city by everybody as a hero.
Then everything started.
Pol Pot wanted to have a real communist country and he implemented very drastical actions to accomplish it. He told the people that the US was going to bomb the cities, so they had to go to the fields for their own safety.
The cities became empty.
Having all of them on the rice fields, they made them work for hours and hours with almost no food or water planting and harvesting rice. Everyone who was educated, wore glasses or had soft hands was send to S 21, the most horrible prision and interrogation center, accused of treason. People were put into large rooms, their feet chained to an iron bar, and interrogated for days with no stop. After they had the “right” answer, they were sent to the killing fields for extermination, normally with a knife or being hit with a stick on their necks, then thrown into mass graves. During Pol Pot’s regime, 1975-1979, almost 3 million people were murdered.
Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979 and took contol over the country until 1991, when a new constitution was written.
How is that I didn’t know about any of this, if it’s only 20 years old? Why don’t they teach us this in school instead of stone age history?
The feeling I have inside me makes me be more grateful for what I haveand for what I’ve lived. I hope that after reading this, you’ll feel grateful too.
simon
Advise: The following pictures are taken in the S 21 prision and in the killing fields, therefore they contain violence. See them at your own will.
Inside a cell. Feet chained to an iron bar. The box in the back was used for excrements.
The next images are pictures of people who died during the Khmer Rouge regime.
Some years ago the mass graves were opened. A pagoda was built to conmemorate the genocide and It was filled with 9000 human skulls found in the place.
Tags: Cambodia, Khmer Rouge, Phnom Penh, Pol Pot, S21, Travel
simonuribe@yahoo.com
Hi Simon,
Good post, I didn’t know so much about this subject as well… History always important to learn from to know about the future.
Besides, I hope you also having lots of fun! keep updating
Amir