Cambodia 2015

Saturday21November

So we end our trip on a less joyful note as we will visit the S21 prison and the "killing field" mass grave.

A museum but above all a place of remembrance to remind the country of what the Khmer Rouge ideology was capable of. This building was originally a high school, then it was requisitioned by Pol Pot's men, the Khmer dictator, to serve as a prison in the heart of the capital.

Opponents of the regime were condemned without reason, having confessed under torture what their torturers wanted to hear. In this room, a bed, an object of torture as shown in the photo on the wall...

The astonishing regulations imposed on prisoners...

Behind each window, men, women, children, babies crammed under the cruel domination of the guards...

The gallows or other instrument of torture. The prisoner was hung by the feet, head in jars filled with water...

Barbed wire fences to remove all hope of freedom...

An impressive room because it recounts the stories of the Khmer Rouge guards who, after the events, were nevertheless reintegrated into society. These guards were between 10 and 20 years old! Completely indoctrinated in Pol Pot's doctrine, they were no less cruel, wanting to spectacularly impress their superiors...  

Some, despite the extraordinary benevolence granted to them, show little regret, others become aware of the madness that was theirs, still others accuse certain Khmer Rouge leaders who at the time were still free:

- Pol Pot fled and was never arrested. He is responsible for the death of 1.7 million people. He died in 1998.
- Duch (the head of the Khmer Rouge police and director of S21 prison) was only arrested in 1999 and is still alive.

Commemorative plaque. 17,000 people were exterminated here or in the mass graves to which prisoners were sent from this prison. Only 7 prisoners were found alive during the liberation of the site in January 1979. If they were not yet dead, it was because they had "talents" useful to the torturers...

And oh surprise! At the exit of the site, 2 of these survivors are there, to dedicate their testimony published in a book.

Chum Mey. He owes his survival to his knowledge in repairing typewriters used by the guards...

Bou Meng. He owes his survival to his talent as an artist, particularly for painting portraits of Khmer Rouge leaders.

We reach the "Killing field" mass grave by tuk-tuk, located about fifteen kilometers from Phnom Penh.

The memorial in the shape of a Stupa. Inside are the thousands of bones found on the site.

For those who have the opportunity to come here, I highly recommend using the audioguide, which not only recounts the horrors of the camp but also the entire historical aspect of this period.

Panels tell the story of the arrival of prisoners coming directly from the S21 Tuol Sleng prison.

Some enclosures delimit the mass graves where thousands of bodies were discovered... 129 pits have been exhumed...

Here, 166 victims found headless...

This tree represents the height of horror. To save ammunition, prisoners were executed with sticks or other tools at the edge of the freshly dug pit so that they would fall directly into it. As for young children, they were beaten to death against this tree...

The tree today is covered with small tribute bracelets.

Lockers containing bones or clothes found here.

On this tree, a loudspeaker covered the sound of the executions.

The memorial composed of the bones of the victims found here. The glass panes hide nothing, in a concern for transparency, so that the visitor fully realizes the reality of human madness...

We take the tuk-tuk again. The journey ends but first we fully enjoy the Phnom Penh traffic jams and, consequently, its pollution... 

Asia, land of motorized two-wheelers and random traffic laws...  

In addition to the traffic jams, our tuk-tuk driver calmly made us wait at his brother's phone shop... then at the dry cleaner's to pick up his laundry...  

While waiting, I take some passers-by, then... hop on his scooter... It didn't worry him at all...  

While waiting for the airport, which we will take at night, we wander left and right, especially in the night market.