Killing Fields

We took a bus from Shionokville to Penom Phen yesterday. It was a less eventfull bus ride then last time. Penom Phen makes Bangkok look like childs play. Bangkok has more smog and is busier, but all of Cambodia is lawless so it stands to reason that the capital city of Cambodia would be just one large out of control place. Durring our time in Cambodia we have witnesed one car accident a day. So far in Penom Phen we have seen two in 24 hours.

In Bangkok the drivers operate under some sort loose set of rules and regulations that end up falling into place creating a sort of controlled chaos. Cambodia dosent seem to have even the loosest set of traffic laws. The police seem to be in place merely to extort the citezenry and tourist out of small portions of cash. I assume they would get involved if some sort of serious crime were to take place, but Im not sure. Our guidebook even said not to worry about miscelaneous gunfire in the city. Apparently its usually just some average every day local celebrating some event with shots into the air. They also seem to think that when there is a thunderstorm that gunshots into the clouds will make the storm go away. Some well travled Australians we met said that Cambodia is a small scale India in terms of sights sounds and intensity. I dont know if that is true but it has been an overwealming experience for us so far.

So today we took a tour of both the Toul Sak prison in the center of the city and then drove out to one of the killing fields. The prison is an erie place and you can feel the horors that took place there. The mass graves of the killing field is only one of over 500 such fields in Cambodia.

The prison originally was a high school prior to the KR taking control. They changed it into a prison where nobody ever was parolled. They were interigated using the most crude and barbaric means and devices possible. The prison remains just as it was when it was liberated in 1980. The walls still have blood splatter, and the floors are perminantly stained. Each torture room still has its original bed, chains, and torture tools. The prison kept detailed photos of all its inmates and they are on display in one of the buildings. You can see the fear in their eyes.

Once a prisoner had been tortured and confessed to whatever it was the KR wanted them to say the prisoners were then transported to the killing fields on the outside of town. The first few years they were executed with bullets, but after a while in order to save amunition other more hands-on means of execution were used mainly invloving hand tools.

There is a large glass stupa 5 stories tall that is piled with the skulls of the victims that were found here. Not all the human remains have been exhumed so as you walk around the field there are pieces of human bone sticking out of the ground. But for some reason even more shocking to us then the bones was all the clothing that is hanging out of the ground. You can see parts of sandals and shirts and pants, some of it blood stained.

Overall not a day full of happy emotions but we needed to see it. So much senseless cruelty. The real shame is that so far none of the KR leaders have been convicted. The trials are just starting and most of the leaders have already died of old age. Even the ring leader Pol Pot lived out his days in relative safety of Thailand. It would be as if the world let Hittler, Georbles, and Himmler live in Switzerland for the rest of their lives.

So I wish I had a positive note to end this post on, but unfortunately i dont. We will stay one more full day in the city and travel by bus to Saigon in Vietnam. Our next post should be from there.