Given name: Saloth Sar
Birth place: Kampung Thom, Cambodia
Timeline: 1928-1998
Children were encouraged to spy on adults. Money was abolished. So were normal schooling, private property, foreign clothing styles, religious practices, and culture. There was no public or private transportation, no private property, and no non-revolutionary entertainment.
If three people gathered and talked, they could be accused of being enemies. People were forbidden to show affection, humor or pity. People were forced to work over 12 hours a day. WITHOUT rest or adequate food. This is life during the Khmer Rouge.
Every Cambodian, as told by our guide Saul, is affected by the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge era. Every Cambodian today has a cousin missing, an uncle dead, a missing brother or father, a mother they never hear from again. And every one was either a farmer or a soldier during Pol Pot's reign. He killed off 25% of the population (1 to 3 million)
"For the love of the nation and the people it was the right thing to do but in the course of our actions we made mistakes." (Pol Pot 1997)
At Choeung Ek. The "killing fields".
Choeung Ek was a former orchard and a Chinese graveyard.
A tomb piece peeking out from the grasses
Does not leave much to the imagination, does it?
Babies being bayoneted. Taken from : http://toms-travels.org
Infants were held at the ankles and swung against a tree. As Saul told us this bit he grips the air and swings his arms back and forth like a baseball batter. I could only imagine a phantom baby in his grip and shuddered.
At the foot of the tree, we found shattered white pieces that formed the skulls of the infants.
Bottom L to R, clockwise: Shattered remains of infant skulls, tree which the babies were swung against, a mass grave.
Mass graves (below). Punctuations at the fields were once mass graves, dug up recently. One grave may contain up to over a hundred bodies. Most of the bodies here were inmates from Tuol Sleng (the school turned torture chamber). 17,000 Cambodians died at this field. Only about 9,000 bodies were found.
Known as the Magic Tree. Due to its audio purposes. A speaker was hung fr its branches. It would play patriotic songs to muffle out groans and cries of terror during execution. Children/teens were also used to execute inmates.
Magic tree.
Human bones still litter the land. With each flooding season more rain washes away the sand and resurfaces the remnants.
L to R: Teeth and clothing remains, broken bones
At Tuol Sleng.
The uncanny resemblance to just about any high schools in Penang gave me the goose bumps.
"Everyone who was arrested and sent to S-21 (Tuol Sleng) was presumed dead already..." (Kaing in Moreorless 2009)
The 14 tombstone erected for the last 14 bodies found at the school when the Khmer Rouge was overthrown. The bodies decomposed so badly, were beyond recognition. To the left in the photo, were gym rungs. Inmates were hung upside down. Tortured. Faints. Lowered into pots of human secretion. Awakes. Torture resumes.
Notice the tempayan-like pot at bottom corner?
It is easy to past judgment on such cruelty. When faced with such terror, instant death is not to be the penalty. Cruel ways of merciless tortures. When seconds seem hours. Days seem eternal damnation. Family members at their mercy. Your decision becomes a judgment call, their fate.
If at such crosspath...
If I join the rouge...
or IF i feign a love for joyless farming...
References:
Wikipedia 2009, Pol Pot
Moreorless, 2009. Heroes and Killers of the 20th century
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