This is a depressing post. I thought long and hard before posting this because as the last stop of my Indo-China trip, I was quite hesitated to blog about this tragic history that sent Cambodia 50 years behind time just 30 years ago.
This is a school. A high school.
It looks no different like every other high school around.
With normal classrooms, playground and staircase.
Or is it?
Year 1975, the Khmer Rouge Regime began.
Cambodians were not prepared what was about to become of them. In the next three years, close to 1/5 population in Cambodia were murdered, slaughtered, perished and eliminated. The biggest massacre every to happen in history, worse than Hitler's time; a total of 1.7 million lives were taken.
And this school was turned into a prison, called the S21; or Genocide S21.
Politicians were captured, tortured and interrogated, and murdered.
In the school, you can still see blood stains on the walls and ceilings in some the classrooms.
This is the stain from this victim who got his stomach punctured while he was alive.
Women were captured and photographed in still form while their kids and husbands were being slaughtered outside.
Wife of ambassador and a tear
Kids were captured because they were either somehow related to politicians, or there was simply no reason at all.
These lives were taken without a thought, with no mercy. And no life was taken before torturing interrogations took place. These included pulling their penis with metal grip, pouring acid up their noses, twitching nipples out, slicing skin, whipping, extreme kicking and punching and hitting of canes till the skull burst.
Skull burst due to over-hitting
Acid from nose
Look at this photo carefully, the kid had his skin pierced through when they pinned the tag to him.
It was inhuman.
A school, transformed into cells.
Feeding only one meal a day, many starved to death during their imprisonment here. It was the "least" cruel way to die.
There was no shower, you eat, shit, pee, and sleep inside a cell just enough to stand and move about.
They wired the corridors, because there was once a girl who managed to run out of cell and jumped from fourth floor and die. The Pol Pot (leading commander, Politician Potential) got angry and decided to wire the place so no one could commit suicide.
During the last year of the regime, the Genocide alone killed over 300 people on a daily basis.
And this was just the introduction of what it was like during the Khmer Rouge regime.
The country haunts me. Cambodia, in my opinion, was a sad, depressing, tragic place that disturbed me gravely during my visit there. I couldn't bring myself to feel happy, to smile; in fact, I was full of tears, anger and a whole mixture of feelings.
I spent three days in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia (pronounced as "Nom Pen") studying the history of Cambodia, and understanding the state it was now. Of why it is still so behind time, why there are people on this earth still crave for true freedom and unable to live out their past.
I read this book called "Stay Alive, My Son" during my stay in Phnom Penh, a true story about a survivor who lived through the period, losing over 30 members of his family, including his son and wife. I finished the book over night, and cringed the night after, unable to sleep.
Wondering why? Asking why? There simply was no answer.
I visited the killing fields, a place where they bring people here to die. Mass lives burials were carried out up to few times a month.
Studying some of the skulled they dug up after the regime, you'll find skulls with holes and felt the pain of how it was like to die there, in that state.
Most times, bamboo sticks were used to save the cost of bullets.
Cracked by bamboo stick
Collections upon collections of skulls were arranged according to different age group.
Skulls of victims age 15-20
In 1988, they built a memorial dedicated to these victims. I was only 4 years old.
It's the famous tower of skulls, storing all the memories of the past, to remind Cambodia and the rest of the world. And to dedicate a place to these victims for them to rest in peace.
I could write the longest post ever about this piece of history, and it took me a really long time wondering how I should begin. I was simply lost of words.
There are a lot more to just photos, sometimes it's better to not say it, and simply experience it, hear it, understand it. This is the reason I travel, why I rather go out and see than to sit home and read. And I want to travel more, to learn about the many whats and whys.
I left Cambodia, ending my Indo-China trip knowing a bit more about the world, and a little less about myself.
To the Cambodians who died during the Khmer Rouge Regime. May your souls rest in peace.
