Cambodia

After 6 hours of horrible karoke, yes they have karoke on the bus, we arrived from Saigon to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After walking around PP, Chris has already decided this is his favorite country. The locals are friendly and the vibe is laid back. We decided to spend a day in PP before heading toward Siem Reap. 

Our goal for the day was to visit all of the sites of the Khmer Rouge genocide. What an eye opening experience. For those of you not familier, let me share with you a little history.  

The Khmer Rouge was lead by a monster named Pol Pot, or Brother number 1. He led this regime between 1975 to 1979.  When Pol Pot was a young man he left for Paris to study. This is where he was believed to  have developed his radical Marxist thought, which later turned into the politics of extreme Maoist agrarianism. The Khmer Rouge started as a gorilla movement in 1963. After the overthrow of the government, Pol Pot  remained a shadowy figure until 1975. 

The movie "The Killing Fields" explains the history very well. The United States had bombed Cambodia leaving the civilians very worried. When the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, the citizens were relieved. Little did they know what hell they were about to face. Pol Pot declared this year zero. Cambodia was about face a radical and brutal cleansing. 

We started our tour at Tuol Sleng, aka Security prison 21. The Khmer Rouge took over a high school. This operation was top secret. This prison was set up for the interrogation and extermination of anti-Angkar element. This list included the educated, political, foreigners, anyone who spoke english, women with long hair, people who wore glasses, etc. They would kill the accused adult and any of their family, including babies. The torture that was horrific.

 Our guide, Diep Daravann, was a survivor of the Khmer Rouge. She was orphaned at the age of 14, after they killed her entire family. She was then forced to work heavy labor for 16 hours a day. She was fed 4 spoons of rice at 8 am and 8 pm. The guards, which consisted of kids her age, beat her with bamboo poles. She showed us the scar where they broke her leg. She claimed they tried to kill at least 3 time.  The pictures on the walls that displayed the brutality were proof of a mad man. Daravann proceeded to tell us that a lot of the soldiers are now running government owned farms in Cambodia. You could hear the fear in her voice as she told us that Pol Pots top 2 men were not arrested until 2 months ago. You read correctly, December of 2007.  Another bit of disturbing history was the fact that when Vietnam

 liberated Cambodia in 1979, America helped to aid Pol Pot in his flee to Thailand. America gave the Khmer Rouge money to help in the fight against Vietnam. Pol Pot did not die until 1998 from natural causes.

                                      

We then proceeded to the Killing Fields. This is one of many mass murdering sites in Cambodia. The large wholes you see in the photo is where they buried the victims.

The skulls are housed in a monument which is memory of all of the Cambodians and foreigners that lost their lives to this madness. 

What I do not understand is how our government help support this. I am almost embaresed to tell people where I am from.  What if Hitler had been set free and given money to live where ever he wanted? I was ashamed. Although our guide was not allowed to speak about her government and the fact that that so many soldiers from the Khmer Rouge are still free, the fear in her voice spoke volumes. Why are we allowing this kind of genocide to happen today in Africa? We need to open our eyes and see what is going on in this world around us.