The Genocide Musem and Killing Fields

Well today was definitely a bit of a downer but an eye opener none the less. Matt and I went to the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields.

The Genocide Museum is essentially the prison where the Cambodian people who lived in Phnom Penh were taken by the Khmer Rouge. These poor people thought they were being liberated by the K. Rouge after years of war, but instead were immediately evacuated from their city, and many of them brought to this prison. It was a very graphic experience, as in the first few cells, each had a picture of the last prisoner found in that room who had been tortured and killed. The more you explored this prison the more pictures you saw. The K. Rouge were very detailed and documented every prisoner who came through. So many rooms showed many of the thousands of prisoners captured - all of them with a mugshot photo taken with their prison ID. The look of fear in their eyes was palpable, and a lot of them had been "roughed up" already. The K. Rouge also took pictures of the tortured who died and sent them to prominent leaders of the opposition to show them they had succeeded in killing them.

Women and children were also captured, photos taken, then tortured and killed. There were 17 thousand prisoners in all and only 7 survived.

Many of the rooms had photo essays as well as paintings that one of the inmate survivors had done. These revealed many of the atrocities that occurred there. The methods of torture were horrible: fingernails pulled out then doused with alcohol, fingers amputated, water boarding, the list just goes on and on.

But the most horrid picture depicted the babies who were either tossed in the air to be shot, like a target, or tossed in the air to be lanced with a bayonet. Other babies were simply grabbed by the legs and their heads smashed against a tree. Ugh, it was just hideous.

After these poor people were tortured, then confessed to something they did not do, they were then taken to the Killing Fields to be "liquidated". Mass graves were everywhere, and the actual monument has 17 stories of the skulls and bones of some of the killed. Even the children and babies.

It was such a horrid reminder, much like the Jewish Death Camps, of how humans can be so cruel to each other. It also reminds you how fortunate you are and really just lucky in the end, to be born in Canada. Seeing those poor mugshots, makes you think how if the tables were turned, and you were in the that very same position, how scared, lost and hopeless you would be.

Even our guide had been touched by this cruelty. She had lost her brother and father to the K. Rouge, and was 13 when she finally got to return to Phnom Phen. She saw many die on her journey and was visibly shaken when she had finished our tour. As a result of this mass genocide Phnom Phen has only truly been back on their feet for 30 years. All of this took place only a few years ago - 1975-1979. That is truly the most unbelievable part of all of this - it happened so recently.

Matt and I feel so fortunate and grateful to have had this opportunity. But I must say, it makes us miss home, our friends and our family just that much more.

Hope you are well, and happy.
xxoo