Faces of Death in Phnom Penh & the Deceptive Calm at the Sisowath

Cambodia pilfered by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. This photo courtesy of Dith Pran, 1974.

There is absolutely no getting around a civil war, painful death and genocide. It is merciless, parsimonious, offensive and reeks of demented, delirious, maniacal judgement. Pol Pot's regime - from 1973-1979 - was such! And with no compulsion to airbrush it, I do hope he rots in hell until eternity!

Pol Pot was schooled in Paris, but that doesn't make him an intellectual. After all, there are also idiots in France the same way there are at every nook and cranny in the world. But more importantly, he went to the university and flunked his course three times! If that qualifies him to lead a nation, I should be President of America (remember that George Bush became one) so you would know that the qualifications aren't as rigid.

DECIMATING THE UNPURE

Mr. Pot led a racial cleansing in his deranged Khmer Rouge that killed thousands on his way to insanity. But he was too ashamed of how he looked that he hardly allowed anyone to see him or take his photos. His cleansing started in Phnom Penh, a move that would eventually decimate every structure that represented civilization which, to his mind, was unpure - churches, government dwellings, temples, houses, banks, bridges, concrete roads, then people!

http://www.tuolsleng.com/ - Painful torture and death to everyone. These photos (above and below) only courtesy of the official Tuol Sleng website. Please visit the site for more photos which are on display at S21.

The first time I visited S21, aka Tuol Sleng Prison - a former elementary school turned into a prison - it took me 2 hours to navigate around the actual prison cells. And I couldn't help getting misty eyed. It was a sobering encounter with a not too distant past.

DOCUMENTING DEATH

The prison cells were tight enclosures made of bricks in one floor and wood panels in another. Every part of the capture was documented by the regime - the way the French loved documenting everything! Each prisoner was photographed upon arrival then post-mortem, after they were tortured. Some were even snapped during the whole bludgeoning process of lunacy. No one was spared. Women, even the pregnant ones, children, old people - each one was taken as prisoners. The most spine-tingling accounts came from the survivors - those who eventually made it out simply because there were just too many prisoners. The officers couldn't keep up with the killings as fast as they should.

SURVIVOR

I thought it would be easier this time around, but emotions aren't that easily tutored. I paid the entrance of $2 and noticed that the new entrance was through the compound's right side corner instead of the front gates. There were more tourists this time. But the twilight zone moment came when one lady stood beside one of a prisoner's photograph. I thought I was seeing a ghost! This breathing, living lady was the very same woman on the photo - moments before she was to be executed! It was unnerving! Turned out, a team was doing a documentary.

NEW MANAGEMENT

After Tuol Sleng, our tuktuk driver named Sem, maneuvered his way towards the Killing Fields, aka Cheung Ek Genocidal Museum. It was a 40 minute drizzly ride to the suburbs. There was new gate and ticket office. There's even a new museum at the left side of the compound. It wasn't there three years ago. A Japanese firm has acquired management privileges of the whole compound which explains the new welcome development.

UNMERCY KILLING

The Killing Fields is really just a parcel of land where prisoners from S21 and other prisons were taken for immediate execution - then buried there. They would place loud speakers on trees so as to drown cries of pain. Babies were thrown up the air then bludgeoned with bayonets as they drop down the ground. Those who were too heavy for this were held at their feet then their head were bashed against the trunk of the trees. Such barbaric acts are, to this day, unfathomable. These trees bear witness to an era of unbridled lunacy.

A pagoda stands at the center of the compound bearing skulls of the departed, thousands of them.

BOEUNG KAK - DEATH OF A LAKESIDE

From the Killing Fields, I asked Sem to take me to Boeung Kak, the old backpacker area north of Sisowath Quay. I have always wanted to see this place. Boeung Kak used to host the cheapest guesthouses in Phnom Penh, but many of them - including a number of Lonely Planet-recommended enclaves - have been dismantled. We navigated through an Edsa-like avenue, then turned left through narrow roads. I saw a gleaming mosque until we eventually reached a place I'd be so scared to visit at night. There were still a few guesthouses left, and the smattering of tourists looking as decrepit as the old settlements that now survive there.

The lakeside had this dramatic view. From across the lake, I saw nothing but sand, allegedly laid by the government developers. The whole area would eventually see the rise of tall buildings in the next 5-10 years. To be honest about it, this seems like a great idea. If Phnom Penh needed to catch up with Siem Reap, the planners seem to go about it the right way. The placed looked scary, and between Sisowath Quay and Boeung Kak, it's a no-brainer which one I'd recommend to friends.

From Boeung Kak, all that's left to do was to get back to Sisowath Quay (photo above). It would be sunset by that time. But tomorrow is another day for revisits.

I can't wait.

This is the Eye in the Sky!

Monks crossing the street along Sisowath Quay. This photo only courtesy of www.levke.net.

Phnom Penh Part 2: The Killing Fields and the Tuol Sleng

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FACES OF DEATH: A Disclaimer

A disclaimer has to be said prior to going further with this post. It is never pleasant talking about death – most especially if it involves more than a million people tortured to their demise. The following post reeks of a savagery not all that different from the European holocaust, thus the images posted below may disturb. I do not wish to inflict doom and gloom on anyone reading my posts. However, not all of history is fraught with gleeful discoveries. In Cambodia, their past has been coated with bitter memories of pain and loss, heartbreaks, desperation and injustice, the magnitude of which is close to being unfathomable. I hope we learn from their history and pray it doesn’t happen ever again.

IRRESISTIBLE OFFER

Upon checking in at my DV8 Guesthouse, I gave myself an hour for breakfast and to relax for a bit. A shower after, I was walking along a well maintained boulevard running alongside the Tonle Sap – the Sisowath Quay, observing the boats docked by the riverside. A block away, a Khmer in his mid-20’s started tailing me, and though I initially planned on mostly walking around the city, it soon dawned on me that I would eventually require a ride to get to the Killing Fields – the Choeung Ek, which is 17 kilometers away from the city center. Though I was a bit apprehensive with regards to the offer, I knew I was given a very good deal.

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LOOK MA, NO HELMET!

Though I will be backriding from a motorcycle (which I’ve never done in the Philippines), it seemed like a great way to see the city. More inexpensive than a tuktuk, a bit uncomfortable too – but it was an offer I couldn’t pass up! There was a little anxiety involved coz one is never quite sure if the stranger you’re riding with is trustworthy. But once again, my gut feel gave the green light! My first agenda was a fast visit at the Mekong Express Bus Office just 4 blocks away. I needed to buy my bus ticket to Saigon which was a cheap $13 (53,200 riel or PhP618). I then decided to start my tour from the farthest on my itinerary – 17 kilometers away, the Killing Fields, south of the city center. So, without a helmet on, I held on tight and off we went.

BOOM BOOMING!

With wind on my hair, my driver Tei started his introduction asking me where I was billeted. His face turned into a wide grin as he learned of DV8 GH, “Many boo-ti-fool girls. You tell me if you want girls to boom-boom!” LOL. Jeez. A man of many talents. A driver, a guide and a pimp! But I know that he was just being a “good” tour guide, offering what he knows to be a common inquiry from other tourists. In Phnom Penh, the sex trade is quite prevalent, with 80-90% of massages used as fronts for a good lay on the hay. He quoted a price – and boy! THAT was cheap! However, I shall not glorify such trade by posting it here.

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MEMORIAL AT CHOEUNG-EK

Thirty minutes later, we were cruising – with dust on my face - through the countryside until we reached a curb of the road. We turned left at what was a compound of the Memorial at Choeung-Ek, the notorious Killing Fields. I paid for the $2 (8,190 riel or PhP95) entrance fee to a smiling girl at the counter while my driver waited outside. At the front lawn stood a memorial, donated by the Japanese, where several skeletal remains are deposited on glass shelves. It is a sobering experience.

-->The road from where you enter the Killing Fields of Choeung-Ek. Nearby, is the shooting range where gun crazy foreigners can shoot rounds of ammunitions – at a cost, of course.
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CHILDREN TREES

From the memorial, I roamed the adjacent grounds. There where mounds of burial sites – harrowing witnesses to half a decade of carnage. These were unlike our manicured cemeteries with lush greeneries. Just neglected parcels of land where tortured victims were killed and buried. Some trees and shrubs now litter the area. Other mounds are enclosed with bamboo fences and thatched cottages. There were “Children Trees” – trees from where the children prisoners were beaten and paddled to their death. I was wincing uncomfortably, imagining what actually transpired on the grounds that I walked on.

AUTHORITARIAN REDS

Between 1975 and 1979, a series of mass graves proliferated all over Cambodia, the majority of which is a few kilometers within the city limits. The best known monument to these sites is the Choeung-Ek, more popularly known as the Killing Fields. During the regime of the communism in then-Kampuchea, the heavy-hand of the ruling Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot, exacted their brand of authoritarianism on their people.

DOUBLE WARNINGS AND RE-EDUCATION

Every single citizen who had been known or rumored to have any contact with a foreigner - a foreign aid worker, a missionary, a priest, a diplomat, an employer, a passerby – is given a warning. Two warnings meant getting “re-educated” which was equivalent to being sent to the Tuol Sleng prison camp or the Choeung-Ek where they are tortured to their death.

DIGGING YOUR OWN GRAVE

Many of these people were made to dig their own graves as the sheer number of prisoners overwhelmed the soldiers. As many as 30,000 were housed at the Choeung-Ek at any given time, most of whom are executed within 24 hours.

-->The Memorial at Choeung-Ek where some of the skeletal remains of the victims of the massacre have been entombed. You can get inside the skimpy four corners to get a closer look.

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Non-descript mounds and burial grounds now lined by trees. There are several of these mounds in the adjacent area.

-->Some of these burial mounds are cordoned off.

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Stacks of children’s bones are hastily laid on the ground for display.

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TUOL SLENG - The Hill of the Strychnine Tree

From the Killing Fields, as we headed back to the city, but we soon realized we were running with a flat tire necessitating a detour somewhere to have the tire vulcanized. I figured it was a good time to try their local carinderia. I invited Tei for lunch- 2,000 kip ($0.49 or PhP28) each for a pork rice meal and a 1,500 kip ($0.37 or PhP17.40) bottled water. Not bad! From there, we were on our way to S-21 (Security Prison 21), the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which used to be Pol Pot’s secret prison camp.

Others prisoners of the Khmer Rouge were brought to the Tuol Sleng (in Khmer, it literally means “Hill of the Poisonous Tree”) – a former high school building that was converted into a prison camp in 1975 where tortures were further implemented. It is a 3-storey building that has witnessed various methods of barbarisms and instruments used to inflict hardship on innocent civilians. Though I was able to get a copy of a dvd documentary on the S-21 a year ago in Siem Reap, I never realized the gravity of being there myself, feeling the cold brick walls of small holding cells, torture chambers, and cubicles that won’t allow you to stretch your arms. At each room, there are several displays of photos of prisoners, collaborators and their prison guards, their stats and designations (farmers, wives, etc.) and their gripping anecdotes that led to their incarceration. I could stay there all day reading those horror stories. These are strictly for the non-depressives.

-->Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum façade - formerly the S-21

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CLOSE TO TEARS

At some point, I found myself embarrassingly misty eyed while reading the stories of children from the display photos. I found the experience an emotional one. And I had to consciously control myself as there was a Dutch girl following my trail as I read anecdotes from room to room.

HOW DO YOU KILL?

To save on ammunition, other gadgets were used for the execution: hammers, axe handles, bars, bamboo sticks. Wives of ministers and even their newborn child were not spared. To highlight these acts of barbarism, a photographer was even assigned to document each prisoner, making sure their photographs were taken before they were to be executed. As if that wasn't enough, some of them were even photographed during these tortures and post mortem.

After neighboring China invaded in 1979, officially ending this genocidal rule – Polpot and his red army had to flee – and a stack of 6,000 negatives and photographs, and written documents were recovered. Some 200,000 people were said to have perished from these heinous torture chambers and a staggering 1.7 million from all forms of starvation, persecution and death all over the country.

NO TRIUMPH

Pol Pot was eventually captured. He died in his cell, believed to have been poisoned. If these were glimpses of sweet revenge, the victorious spirit escapes me. There is nothing triumphant about death – Pol Pot’s or the 1.7 million others.

These killing fields and museums remind people of the horrors of an authoritarian regime; a bitter reminder of a reign that went to the iron fists of mad men.

-->Single cells at the ground floor made of bricks.

-->Holding cells at the 2^nd floor made of wood.

-->A view from the second floor hallway.

-->Hundreds of photographs are on display at each room. Some contain their anecdotes.

-->Women with children. The 2^nd photo is the wife of the foreign affairs minister and her newborn child.

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The S-21 taken during the fall of the regime in 1979.

The S-21 today - a genocide museum (above).

This is the Eye in the Sky!