DAY NINETEEN

The time we spent at The Killing Fields outside of Choeng Ek and the Tuol Sieng detention facility in the city centre were definitely not for the faint hearted. When Pol Pot and his guerrilla Khmer Rouge organisation took over the Capital Phnom Penh in 1975, there was rejoicing as the previous corrupt government had been ousted. This happiness soon change when the Khmer Rouge soldiers began to force Cambodians from the main city centres, including the capital, where over 2 million left in one day. The Pol Pot regime's fundamental plan was to expel all educated people, and that peasants would rule in a simplistic society. Those not wanting to conform, would then face punishment. It is described as a 'Maoist' society. Little did the people know what was to happen next.....
Former government officials, teachers, lawyers, doctors etc were then rounded up, sentenced for concocted illegal behaviour or action, such as one I read ' fool like behaviour', and then usually tortured and killed. There were different methods that were used, but the Killing Fields technique was one. The people would be driven to concentration style camps, processed then butchered by stick, knife, bat etc. The Khmer didn't want to waste bullets, so instead inflicted terrible suffering on the Cambodian people before the inevitable. The bodies were then thrown into pits and covered up.
At the remembrance ground we visited, it is estimated well over 8000 people were killed there ( this is because there are still finding mass graves all the time, and the number is based on amounts of skulls that are displayed in the remembrance tower, or 'stupa'. It is an extremely eerie place to visit, and accompanied by true accounts of survivors on your headset, you start to appreciate how truly horrific these times were. The mass graves started being discovered ten years on because of heavy rains washing the earth away and revealing bones, clothing, belongings etc. whilst we walked around, you can see bones and clothing protruding from the ground. Once per week, the Choeng Ek trust staff screen the site for the bones and clothing to save and preserve in the memory of the victims.
Next stop was the detention facility in the city centre. As soon as you enter the gates, you are aware you are somewhere where something very wrong happened. What was a former school, was made into one of the cruelest detention facilities of its kind in history. It was a storage place for those who were waiting to be transported to one of the thousand Killing Fields throughout the country. The conditions and treatment were incredibly inhumane, and the only way of avoiding the Killing Fields was through death at the centre, through beatings, malnutrition or sickness. The cells have the pictures (befores and afters) of all the inmates who were stored here, as the regime catalogued every individual, their supposed crimes, punishment, and this included former Khmer soldiers who had shown even the slightest sign of morality.
We visited to pay respect to those who suffered, and even though possibly a bit morbid spending time at two very somber places, we didn't resort to taking pictures of the photos depicting tortured bodies of the inmates which were hung on the walls. Found it a bit depraved to be honest and disrespectful to a large extent. I have found that places like these are treat like tourist attractions, which defeats the point of why they are there, even to the extent where there was market stalls selling souvenirs to the visitors. Truly remarkable behaviour, but that's my opinion!
The afternoon was spent walking around Phnom Penh soaking up the good and bad. It is quite a nice city, but as we to find out, vastly different to the rest of the country. The city is awash with brand new Bentleys, Porsches, Maseratis and Audis, large condominiums, pristine temples etc, and for a country without a recognisable strong economy, it is quite expensive for food, drink , clothing etc. A beer will cost the same as the U.K, unless you buy at a bar advertising happy hour prices.