I arrived in Pnomh Penh to a beautiful reunion with Katie filled with hundreds of hugs. After a much-needed catch up over lunch, we set off to Choung Ek Killing Fields. It was at the same time interesting, sensitive and horrifying. Choeung Ek was the site chosen by the Khmer Rouge regime for the imprisonment, torture and execution of innocent civilians. Over 8000 men, women and children were buried at the site in mass graves. We walked through peaceful meadows and flowering trees gently blowing in the warm breeze which were a stark contrast to the brutal history and harrowing personal stories we were listening to on our headsets. The tour was narrated by a survivor of the regime and Choeung Ek itself; one of the very few to see it and live to tell the tale. We looked down at the ground beneath our feet to see fragments of bone, teeth and clothing emerging from the dust and grass. The memorial stupa at the centre of the site was filled with thousands upon thousands of skulls, catelogued and displayed according to presumed cause of death; anything from bludgeoning to stabbing as bullets were deemed too expensive to end such worthless lives. We wandered past the mass graves, now just open holes in the ground, in utter silence and contemplation. We eventually came to The Killing Tree, which, when discovered at the fall of the Khmer Rouge, was covered in shards of skull, blood and brain. Babies and small children had been swung against it by their legs in order to cave in their skulls. The mass grave next to the tree was where their tiny bodies were discarded, often along with their mothers. It was truly horrific and terrifying recent. Anyone living in Cambodia who is over the age of 40 lived through this genocide.
Our next stop was Toul Sleng Genocide Museum, or S-21; the prison where "traitors" to the regime were interrogated, tortured and killed. The Khmer Rouge systematically executed anyone who was a threat to the regime; this was often academics, teachers, doctors, anyone educated with their own views and opinions. S-21, before it became a prison, was a school. The tiny wooden or brick cells which had been built in place of the classrooms were like something out of a nightmare. There was room upon room filled with photos of the victims staring mournfully out of class cases. The Khmer Rouge had flawless administration so each prisoner was photographed. Staring into the faces of those who had been murdered there was both poignant and heartbreaking. Some looked terrified, some angry, some in quiet acceptance, some already beaten and some were even photographed after their death. It was an incredibly haunting place. One of the seven survivors of S-21 was at the museum to answer questions. But what would I even begin to ask?
Although it was a harrowing start to my journey through Cambodia, a knowledge and understanding of the violent and anguish-filled past of the country was essential to appreciating it as it is now: recovering.
Although it was a harrowing start to my journey through Cambodia, a knowledge and understanding of the violent and anguish-filled past of the country was essential to appreciating it as it is now: recovering.