Phnom Penh and the Cambodian genocide

Our first stop in Cambodia was the capital Phnom Penh, where we visited the infamous killing fields to learn about the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s.

The story of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, and the Cambodian genocide is shocking. Human suffering and mass murder beyond belief.

The back story: in modern times Cambodia was a French colony, then in 1953 became an independent monarchy, and in 1970 right-wing anti-communists overthrew the Prince and declared a Republic. The Prince declared his support for the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian communist movement, and the impact of US bombing in Cambodia during the last few years of the Vietnam war helped mobilize more local support for the communists. The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot grew strong enough to capture the capital of Phnom Penh in 1975.

The Khmer Rouge immediately began ruthlessly enacting their own brand of agrarian communism. They closed the borders and cut off contact with the outside world. Within days of capturing Phnom Penh, they evacuated the entire city to forced labor in the fields (using the excuse that the Americans were coming to bomb them). The population of the cities were seen as class enemies, so they were expected to work in the fields from before dawn until late at night, with almost no food. Thousands starved or were worked to death. All civil organizations like schools, temples, and hospitals were closed, so there was no medical care. Just collective farming.

Dissent was not tolerated. Anyone suspected of disagreeing with the Khmer Rouge was arrested and murdered, along with their entire family, including children. The idea was to leave no one alive for revenge. Elites, teachers, monks, lawyers, students, anyone who spoke a foreign language, even anyone who wore glasses were arrested, tortured, and killed. Not even members of the Khmer Rouge were safe. The Khmer Rouge proverb was "better to kill an innocent than spare an enemy."

An estimated 2 MILLION people were killed by the Khmer Rouge, 25% of Cambodia's population. We visited the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek just outside Phnom Penh, where 20,000 people were executed and buried in mass graves. There are hundreds of similar sites across Cambodia. Every week at Choeung Ek two trucks of prisoners were offloaded for execution at night, under cover of the noise of the diesel generator and propaganda loudspeakers. Prisoners were bound and blindfolded and made to kneel at the side of the mass grave pits. Bullets were expensive, so the guards killed them with farm tools.

Choeung Ek is now a memorial. Human bones and scraps of clothes are coming up from the dirt of the paths everywhere. Half of the mass graves have been excavated, and the bones of the victims placed in a stupa for veneration.

We also visited the S21 prison. S21 was a high school before the revolution, but the Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison and torture center. The classrooms were used as interrogation rooms and mass cells. Thousands of people were held and tortured here before being killed or sent to their deaths, but we met one of the very few survivors.

Chum Mey survived two years at S21. He is a skilled mechanic, and the Khmer Rouge would occasionally spare prisoners with valuable skills to work for them. He barely survived, and when the prison was evacuated in 1979 he was reunited with his wife and son by chance, only for the guards to shoot them in front of him. Just days before the Khmer Rouge fell.

The Khmer Rouge were ousted in 1979 by the Vietnamese (in retaliation for incursions into the Mekong Delta), but continued resistance in the jungles until the late 90s. The international community was slow to recognize the genocide and  resistant to Vietnam's control, and as a result the Khmer Rouge held Cambodia's UN seat until 1982. Relations slowly normalized and the Khmer Rouge pacified. Pol Pot died in 1998, likely killed by his own supporters, but war crime trials for Khmer Rouge leaders didn't start until the 2000s.

Cambodia is trying to look forward, but the Khmer Rouge years still cast a long shadow. Landmines from the 70s are a major problem, and corruption is endemic. Tourism is a bright spot: the number of annual tourists has skyrocketed, and Cambodia is expecting 5 million tourists for 2015.

-Peter