What do you expect to see when you get to Cambodia? Angkor Wat, of course. Thousands of tourists pour into Cambodia every year to see Angkor Wat. But Cambodia is not only The Khmer Empire with its majestic temple the Angkor Wat. Cambodia nurses a deep, dark secret, which the people of Cambodia, the Khmers insist on sharing with every tourist who visits their peaceful country.
A bit of history, we leave the turbulent times of long ago and move a little closer to our times. Between 1969 and 1973, as we know the United States of America fought a war against Communism, in Vietnam. U.S. forces bombed and briefly invaded Cambodia in an effort to disrupt the Viet Cong and Khmer Rouge. Some two million Cambodians were caught in this senseless war and became refugees, not knowing where to go they fled to Phnom Penh. Estimates of the number of Cambodians killed during the bombing campaigns vary widely, as do views of the effects of the bombings. As the Vietnam War ended, as was expected Cambodia, faced famine in 1975. Most of its draft animals destroyed, the rice planting for the next harvest had to be done, by the hard labour of a seriously malnourished people. As if that was not enough, as if the Khmers had not had enough of death, suffering, starvation, the Khmer Rouge reached Phnom Penh and took power in 1975, led by Pol Pot.
If you wanted indescribable hell, Cambodia was the place to go during the Pol Pot Regime
Pol Pot changed the official name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea. He and his aides forcibly evicted entire cities, sent the people on forced marches, to work on rural projects. Pol Pot attempted to rebuild the country's agriculture on the model of the 11th century. Everything Western was discarded; this included Western medicine, destruction of temples and libraries. At least a million Cambodians, out of a total population of 8 million, died from executions, overwork, starvation and disease. Estimates as always vary but the most commonly cited figure is around 2 million.
And now we enter Tuol Sleng, ladies and gentlemen
Tuol Sleng was a high school, the Chao Ponhea Yat High School, here there was laughter, you could see children running everywhere, there was happiness as there is in any school where there are children. It was a school where mothers waited for their kids at the end of the day and asked them ‘How was your day today’ or would say to them ‘I have cooked something special for you’.
Overnight the Chao Ponhea Yat High School turned into Security Prison 21 (S-21)
Overnight the classrooms with black and yellow patterned tiles, where such happy children studied and played were turned into torture chambers, mass cells. The benches and chairs disappeared; we now have long pieces of iron bar to which prisoners were shackled. The shackles were fixed to alternating bars; or were fixed to the floor. No more teachers and students reading out their lessons, reciting poetry or memorizing tables. The prisoners slept with their heads in opposite directions, on the floor without mats, mosquito nets, or blankets.
No more light hearted banter, no more little quarrels, the shackled prisoners were forbidden to talk to each other. Life in the prison followed a routine, much like the schoolchildren followed their own routine.
The day in the prison began at 4:30 a.m. when prisoners were ordered to strip for inspection. The guards checked to see if the shackles were loose or if the prisoners had hidden objects they could use to commit suicide. Over the years, several prisoners managed to kill themselves, so the guards were very careful in checking the shackles and cells. The prisoners received four small spoonfuls of rice porridge and watery soup of leaves twice a day. Drinking water without asking the guards for permission resulted in serious beatings. The inmates were hosed down every four days. The prison had very strict regulations, and severe beatings were inflicted upon any prisoner who tried to disobey. Almost every action had to be approved by one of the prison's guards.
At Tuol Sleng ordinary objects turned killer objects, you could die anywhere…
At Tuol Sleng, the outside boundary wall were no longer simple walls, they had rows upon rows of barbed wire always electrified…
At Tuol Sleng, an iron bed could be used to shackle prisoners, after their throats had been slit with a curved knife.
At Tuol Sleng, the large yellow tiled classrooms could be converted into box sized cells, where prisoners awaiting torture could be shackled.
At Tuol Sleng, the blackboard could be used to write the roll call of the cell inmates.
At Tuol Sleng, water boarding could mean a sloping wooden piece where prisoners could be shackled and water from a blue watering can poured over their faces until they confessed.
At Tuol Sleng, the pictures of women and men you see, were not those of merit students, about to receive prizes, they were of prisoners, who have given up on hope, eyes vacant already dead. And the baby in his mother’s arms, would never know what it is to crawl on the floor chasing his cat.
Welcome to the world of Pol Pot, where ordinary everyday objects take on different meaning and functions.
Outside on a huge board, there are the rules for the inmates, written in Khmer and translated into French and English
1. You must answer accordingly to my question. Don’t turn them away.
2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that; you are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Don’t be a fool for you are a chap who dares to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Don’t make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.
9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.
I read the rules, but I read and reread Rule 6
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
I cannot stop reading this rule. My son pulls me away gently
I sit on a stone seat under a frangipani shedding its flowers gently on 14 graves. These were the graves of the prisoners found by the liberating Vietnamese Army, their throats slit. One of them a woman.
I pray, I do not know for what, Tuol Sleng, teaches you to pray without words to any God who might hear your prayer.
For Three Years, Eight Months and Eleven Days the Cambodians prayed.
