***Here is your warning. This blog is a bit graphic.***
Last weekend, I went to a place called the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is hard to describe this place but I will do my best.
I walked through the gates and my first impression was that it was a beautiful park. If I was to pick a place to have a picnic or to take kids to play, this would be a top choice. There were big beautiful sugar palm trees and many other types of trees everywhere. The grass was as green as a rice paddy (which is a very bright amazing kind of green.) Butterflies flew all around as well as a plethora of birds singing their own unique songs. There were little hills throughout this park and cute benches to sit and let your thoughts wander as you look around at the scenery.
We were given a headset so we could listen as we went on an audio tour of this park. As I listened my heart started to break. This place was the site where thousands of people were killed. And not by accident. People were brought here to be killed in the 1970s. People like me. Teachers were brought here to be killed. Anyone who spoke a foreign language were killed. Anyone who had an education. Doctors, lawyers, entertainers, musicians, soldiers, businessmen, law enforcement, monks, christians, ministers, etc.
These killings were done by people who were part of the Khmer Rouge. They wanted to control the Cambodians to the point where the people would be happy little simple minded people that couldn't think for themselves and would hang on to every word the Rouge told them. There was no monetary system, no jobs aside from farming, no schools, no public places, no private property. Schools, libraries and other public places were closed down and some became prisons and places of torture.
The prisons contained rooms that had tons of walls separating the prisoners. Their cell was about 2.5 feet wide and 6 feet long. The walls of the cells were in the shape of 7s or Ls. The entrance of one was opposite of the wall of another so that the prisoners never saw anyone else. They heard the cries and moans of faceless, bodiless people. I have never been good at imagining hell. But after being to the prison and to the killing field, I imagine hell is pretty similar to those places.
There was a tree called the Magic Tree. But there was nothing magic about it. It just adds to the scary hell this place was. Hanging from this tree was a loud speaker. The speaker was used to drown out the sound of all the people crying and moaning so the executioners and officers of the Khmer Rouge didn't have to hear them. The music that was played was eerily cheerful music like anthems and jigs.
Magic Tree … The tree was used as a tool to hang a loudspeaker which make sound louder to avoid the moan of victims while they were being executed
As I listened to the audio tour guide while I walked around this once living hell, my heart fell to pieces. I was hearing stories of families being torn apart, of people being tortured and killed, and of others who survived during this horror having no idea if the members of their families were alive or dead. Children were taken away from their mothers. Siblings separated for life.
I was sitting by the lake at one side of the property listening to stories and testimonies of what happened and it started to rain. It was a light, misty kind of rain for a while. I felt as if Heaven were crying with me. Like I was being covered by the millions of tears that were shed some 30 years ago.
Prisoners were taken to the Killing Fields, after being in the prisons where they were tortured for days, bound and blindfolded. They were tortured until they admitted they worked for the American CIA or the Russian KGB or admitted to other false accuasations. They were then given a shred of hope as they were being told about a new home they were going to. I can't imagine how awful it must have been to be told about a new home only to show up to this place and be killed! To go from one hell to another.
The people were killed with whatever the executioners could get their hands on. Hoes, axes, machetes, sugar palm tree leaves (their serated edges were used to slit throats), hatchets, hand knives, and anything else that could be used to cut throats or bash into heads.
What hurt my heart the most was hearing about the children being killed. The children were killed so the Khmer Rouge wouldn't have victims that would try to avenge their loved ones' deaths. I saw a painting of a very young child being thrown into the air and being shot. I stood infront of the Killing Tree for about 15 minutes. This tree was used to kill children as their mothers watched and were raped and were killed themselves. The children were picked up by their ankles and were swung into the tree and then thrown into the pit with their dead or dying mothers. When these fields were discovered later, brain mater and bone/skull fragments were found in the bark of this tree.
(those are bracelets that people put on the tree)
Killing tree against which executioners beat children
The hills that I mentioned in the beginning of this blog are not hills at all. They were once mass grave pits that held hundreds of dead bodies in each one. There were so many there. What I was seeing were the remains of the dug up pits. Bone fragments and teeth are still being washed up every few months with the rainy season and are picked up by the workers and put with the rest of the fragments.
Bone and Teeth Fragments
The bones and teeth fragment that were exhumed in 1980 were in the ground. Nowadays, the bones and teeth fragments have come up after the flood and raining a lot and they were collected to keep on.
(bone fragments being washed up from all the rain)
It is one thing to hear about or read about something as massive and sad as this. But it is another thing entirely to go to the place where so many innocent men, women and children were killed.
Because of this massacre 35 years ago 80% of the population of Cambodia are under the age of 30 and 50% are under the age of 20. There aren't many doctors, lawyers, teachers, soldiers or any other professionals that were targets of the killings years ago. Cambodia is still being rebuilt. Their monetary system is still not very strong so they use the USD as well as their currency (Reil) to help keep the fluctuation steady with the Reil.
The pride that these people have for their country is so touching. Cambodians love to ask me "How do you feel about Cambodia?" all the time. I always tell them that I love Cambodia and how I think the people and the culture are wonderful.
This weekend I am going to Siem Reip to visit one of the Seven Wonders of the World!! I have seen one of the seven, the Colosseum. Tomorrow, I am going to visit Angkor Wat!! I am so excited because we are bringing a few of our friends from the village. I will have a blog with pictures of the temples in a few days. Keep a look out for it and keep my team and me in your prayers! We head to Rwanda next week!!!
Much love from Cambodia!
Malerie
