Before I arrived in Cambodia, I had heard stories of
genocide, poverty and a country still healing from its recent past. I wasn’t
sure what to expect, but I knew that the month would be eye opening for me and
for our team.
When we arrived in Phnom Penh, we drove down the street of
our contact’s church and I was blown away by the poverty level. People lined
the streets selling anything they were able to in order to provide for their
families. Rotting vegetables and fruits could be seen along the road, dumped
because they could no longer be sold. The smell of human waste and rotten goods
filled my lungs as we drove along. When we arrived at New Hope School, we were
welcomed by over 30 children yelling, “teacher, teacher!” They embraced us and
smiled with so much joy and innocence. Immediately, I knew that these people
were full of fight and perseverance. To go from absolute poverty outside the
school gates to children filled with so much joy, was almost a shock to my
system.
We sat down with our contact later on that night and he
briefed us on what we would be doing for the month…he also mentioned that he
wanted to share his testimony with us and that he had survived the Khmer Rouge
and lived during the time of the Killing Fields. He left a binder full of
Cambodian history for us to read through and I received my first, yet very
small, lesson on Cambodian history. It talked about a civil war in the early
70’s and a group of Communists ending the civil war to take control of the country
in 1975, but didn’t go into too much detail about the Communist reign. So, our
team decided to visit the killing fields on the next Saturday to get a better
understanding of what had happened just 35 years ago. This is what we saw and
learned…
When the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, took over they cleared
out Phnom Penh and sent every resident to rice fields around the country. Their
ultimate goal was to rid the country of every educated and intelligent
Cambodian in order to get rid of any opposition. People were forced into slave
labor in the rice fields,
working over 12 hours a day, every day, for 362 days
per year. Families were separated from each other and forced to live
separately. Rations of food were handed out to the people, but not enough to sustain
them. Hundreds to over a thousand died of starvation, malnutrition and disease
in the rice fields.
Those who were educated or who worked for the government
were taken to the S-21. Even Cambodians who showed signs of intelligence such
as wearing reading glasses were taken to this location. S-21 was originally a
high school compound which was turned into a prison when the Khmer Rouge took
over. The rooms of 3 different 3 stories buildings were used to torture,
interrogate and kill those the regime viewed as their opposition. We walked
through each room where these innocent people were held. I saw with my own eyes
the beds that the dead were found on and the instruments that were used to
torture. We walked through room after room after room, each one filled from
wall to wall with pictures of the “prisoners” who were eventually tortured and
killed. It was another holocaust.
We walked through the “Killing Fields.” When people had been
interrogated enough or had confessed to whatever they were being accused of,
they were bused to a field a few kilometers outside of Phnom Phen. Here, Khmer
Rouge soldiers brutally murder men, women and children. They dug mass graves
and threw body after body down into the ground. They used weapons that were
originally used for harvesting crops to kill and poured chemicals into the
graves to decrease the stench and hide the rotting flesh that lay just below
the surface. They placed large speakers in a tree at the center of the field
which covered the sounds of mourning people and broken bodies. Another tree was
used to specifically kill babies at which they were thrown at until they
passed.
This is just a small description of the atrocities that we
saw. As if this wasn’t enough, we saw even more that I can’t even put into
words. I don’t know how people can destroy others in such a harsh (to put it
lightly!) way…let alone destroy at all! I still have trouble comprehending what
the survivors saw and experienced.
But I look around at a poverty stricken nation…and I see
hope. I see people walking with smiles on their faces. I hear joy in the
laughter of the children at the school. I see buildings around the city being
built and restored and repaired. I see that a nation on the brink of
destruction is coming back…and although it might seem slow to the rest of the
world, it’s coming back.
It was because of the Khmer Rouge that the pastor we worked
with came to know Christ and now serves his city and his culture to bring a
light that is so much needed. He’s providing an opportunity for people to get
out of their poverished lives and seek a living God who gives hope to the
hopeless and freedom to the captives.
It’s not to make light of the 2 million plus lives that were
lost. But it’s looking at the people who are still here…who live and hope and
strive for something more…and bringing Jesus to such a dark country. He’s in
Cambodia.
