phnom penh

on our first day in the capital of cambodia, phnom penh, alina and i visited the two most historically significant sites in the city. first, we visited the tuol sleng museum. tuol sleng , originally a high school, was transformed into security prison 21, the largest center of detention and torture in the country. today it stands as testament to the unthinkable horrors that occurred there. afterwards, we visited the killing fields of choeung ek, where over 17,000 men, women and children (many detainees of s-21) were massacred and buried in mass graves during the genocide of the khmer rouge regime.

after these small insights into the horrors of cambodia's recent past, i am at a loss of words on how to describe the impact it has had on us. hopefully these words, written by fellow countrymen of the dead can better explain the suffering this beautiful country experienced less than 30 years ago:

"even in this 20th century, on kampuchean soil the clique of pol pot criminals, committed a heinous genocidal act. they massacred the population with atrocity in a large scale, it was crueler than the genocidal act committed by the hitler fascists, which the world has never met.
with the commemorative stupa in front of us, we imagine that we are hearing the grievous voice of the victims who were beaten by pol pot men with canes, bamboo stumps and heads of hoes. who were stabbed with knives or swords. we seem to be looking at the horrifying scenes and the panic stricken faces of the people who were dying of starvation, forced labour or torture without mercy upon the skinny body, they died without giving the last words to their kith and kin. how hurtful those victims were when they were beaten with canes, heads of hoes and stabbed with knives and swords before their last breath went out. how bitter they were when seeing their beloved children, wives, husbands, brothers or sisters seized and tightly bound before being taken to the mass grave!

while they were waiting for their turn to come and share the same tragic lot,
the method of massacre which the clique of pol pot criminals was carried upon the innocent people of kampuchea cannot be described fully and clearly in words because the invention of this killing method was strangely cruel so it is difficult for us to determine who they are for. they have human form but their hearts are demon's hearts. they have got the khmer face, but their activities are purely reactionary. they wanted to transform kampuchean people into a group of persons without reason or a group who knew and understood nothing, who always bent their heads to carry out angkor's orders blindly. they had educated and transformed young people and the adolescent whose hearts are pure, gentle and modest into odious executioners who dared to kill the innocent and even their own parents, relatives or friends.

they had burnt the marketplace, abolished monetary systems, eliminated books of rules and principles of national culture, destroyed schools, hospitals, pagodas and beautiful monuments such as angkor watt temple, which is the source of pure national pride and bears the genius, knowledge and intelligence of our nation.

they were trying hard to get rid of khmer character and transform the soil and waters of kampuchea into a sea of blood and tears which was deprived of cultural infrastructure, civilization and national character, became a desert of great destruction that overturned the kampuchean society and drove it back into the stone age."

cambodia has a long road to recovery ahead of it and the scars of the khmer rouge regime are still everywhere. maybe, with a little help from the rest of the world, cambodia can get fully back on it's feet and create the economic, educational and social infrastructures necessary to rebuild it's culture and help it's people.