Today we visited the killing feilds and S-21, former high school and then prison and tourcher chamber.

I dont really have the words to discribe this experience but i feel compeled to write about it in what ever haphazard way i can.

The killing feilds are quite and peaceful. To look at them at first you would not think much of them. But as you make your way though the paths surounding shallow holes in the earth and see the piles of cloths and occasional bone that has not been recoved fully from these mass graves you come to realise the wait of the history of this place and how raw it still is.

S-21 prison is full of pictures of those detained, tourchered and killed. As chris said, it is a very strange experience to be able to stare into the eyes of everyone that was tourchered and killed here. Mug shots of young, old and very young (some even just babys) line ths walls.

The genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge lasted almost 4 years with Pol Pot at the lead. Between 1975 and 1979 the cambodian people were rounded up and made to work like slaves. Seperated from there familes and friends. Lived in fear for there lives and were touchered and murdered. Approximaly 2 million people were killed during this time. Even after the Khmer Rouge fell from power they contiued there rain of terror in the rural villages. Even now there legacy lives on, not only in the minds of the cambodian people but also in the estimated 4-6 million landmines that are scattered across the country.

I learnt all of this today. I new of Pol Pot but little about the suffering face by the cambodian people. Why is it that we dont know about this stuff? or does everyone else know and im just living in my own dream world? I find it had to belive that we still havent learned. Genocide has happened in europe, afica, asia where next?

Im sorry, this is probably not the reason you read this blog. You probably feel that you really dont need to feel bad about something that happened half way around the world a decade or so ago when so much is happening at home. And your right. we cant change the past but we can shape the future! Im not sure where this is going and im quite temped to delete the whole thing. I think im starting to sound a little melodramatic, which i hate.

So we went to the killing feilds today and it was sad!