Cheung Ek & S21

Regarding what Cara has written previously about our trips to Cheung Ek (Killing Fields) and S21 (Tuol Sleng prison), I thought I'd add a few more words. As a youngster I became fascinated by the story of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. It was such a bizarre historical example for me as a teenager, and seemed to happen in this wierd place far away that I knew nothing about. I read every book I could find on the subject* and it was somewhere I have always wanted to visit. So when we finally managed to get there it was quite an experience for me. Walking around the mass execution site at Cheung Ek it is very difficult to rationalise how calm the place seemed whilst at the same time, looking at signs next to excavated pits with messages like "Mass grave of 248 women and children found without heads". S21 was very similar in this respect. Prior to Khmer Rouge rule it was a school, and from 1975 to 1979 it was transformed into a detention centre used for the sole purpose of torturing alleged enemies for the revolution. Everybody detained there was subsequently taken to Cheung Ek for execution, excluding the 7 people Cara mentioned and those who died under torture. Being efficient beaurocrats, the Khmer Rouge kept records and photographs of almost everybody who passed through the prison, and photos of many of these people are now displayed on boards in the prison musuem. For many relatives of these prisoners, they only discovered the fate of there family members after visiting the museum and finding their photo on these boards.

One of the most difficult aspects for me to reconcile about this part of Cambodia's history is that the great majority of Cambodian people now live side by side with each other, having previously been on opposite sides of this conflict. I think that I for one would be somewhat more bitter and vengeful than they appear to be. There are still calls for the remaining Khmer Rouge leaders to be brought to trial, but the ordinary soldiers, the people who did the killing and torturing, still live next door to and work beside the families of those who died.

My apologies for being so serious on what has so far been a fairly lighthearted diary, but we reserve the right every now and then to get a little self-indulgent. Thank you for your patience.

*Should you at any time be interested in reading any more on this part of Cambodia's history. I can strongly recommend a book called "Surviving the Killing Fields : A Cambodian Odyssey" by Haing S. Ngor. The author was a Cambodian doctor who was detained and tortured by the Khmer Rouge. He managed to escape to Thailand and eventually made it to America. Whilst there, he landed the role of Dith Pran in the movie "The Killing Fields" and won an oscar for best supporting actor. He went on to become a reasonably successful actor and high profile leader of the Cambodian community in the USA. He was murdered outside his home in LA in 1996 by muggers after refusing to give them a locket containing a picture of his dead wife.