This morning started off early at the Tuol Sleng Museum, once a centre of learning, this high school was taken over by Pol Pots security forces and transformed into Security Prison 21 (S-21). The classrooms were turned into torture chambers and equipped with various instruments to inflict pain, suffering and death. Now a museum, it was the largest incarceration centre in the country. The long corridors and hallways host boards upon boards of haunting photos of the victims. This prison was set up by the Khmer Rouge, who wanted to take over the country, and enslave the people.
Who are the Khmer Rouge? Here's your history lesson kids!
On April 17, 1975, two weeks before the fall of Saigon, the Khmer Rouge implemented one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of a society ever attempted. Its goal was to transform Cambodia - renamed Democratic Kampuchea - into a giant peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative untainted by anything that had come before. Within days, the entire population of Phnom Penh and provincial towns, including sick, elderly and infirm, were forced to march into the countryside and work as slaves for 12-15 hours a day. Disobedience of any sort often brought immediate execution. The advent of Khmer Rouge rule was proclaimed Year Zero. The revolution soon set about wiping out all intellectuals - wearing glasses was reason enough to be killed.
Leading the Khmer Rouge was a man named Pol Pot. Under his rule, Cambodia became a vast slave-labour camp. Meals consisted of little more than watery rice porridge twice a day, meant to sustain men, women and children through a back breaking day in the fields. Disease stalked the work camps, malaria and dysentery striking down whole families.
The Khmer Rouge rule was brought to an end by the Vietnamese, who liberated the almost empty city of Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979. It is still not known exactly how many Cambodians died during the three years, eight months and 20 days of Khmer Rouge rule. The most accepted estimate is that at least 1.7 million people perished at the hands of Pol Pot and his followers.
Ya, that's a section from the book with a few pieces left out. As I'm sure you can imagine, this morning was very emotional for me. Our guide told us his person story of survival through the rule of the Khmer Rouge. UNBELIEVABLE, but true! Countless people today are still very much affected by this. The stories and the sites are truly beyond belief. As much as I love history, these stories are so hard to comprehend. And yet, after all this, the people of Cambodia are so happy. I'm certain this doesn't apply to everyone, things like this rarely do, but all that I've encountered thus far shows Cambodian people bring a great and balanced view to life and all that it has to offer.
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