I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t really know that much about Cambodia before the World Race. Tiffany and I have been really intentional to learn about what has happened here and what we’ve found has completely broken our hearts…
On Saturday, we went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and received a lesson in Cambodian history. Here’s what we learned: After years of civil war in the country, the Pol Pot Regime, also known as the Khmer Rouge (a communist sect) took over the country in 1975. The people were relieved to be “liberated” from civil war. That joy lasted about four hours. Everyone was forced to evacuate Phnom Penh and move to the country side so a purging could take place.
Over the next four years, the regime completely destroyed the country. All the people in the city were taken to the countryside to learn farming and contribute to the good of all citizens. Many were put in forced labor and work camps with little to no food. The worst of it were the killings. Because the Khmer Rouge wanted to reform the way people thought about life and government, they murdered millions of people. Anyone who was in the previous government, intellectuals, monks, doctors, the religious and teachers were told that they would be honored if they came forward to offer their services and were instead executed. If you had any skill that was different from the common laborer, you would be killed because Communism holds that all are completely equal. Children were brainwashed and turned into child soldiers; oftentimes being asked to kill family and friends.
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was once a High School and was turned into a prison camp named S-21 designed for detention, interrogation, inhumane torture, and killing. When people were accused of a “crime,” they were tortured until they “confessed” and then were slaughtered. As we walked through the buildings and saw the rooms, I was sickened. There were pictures on the walls of what the rooms looked like when the communists were defeated and liberation forces came to the prison.
Black and white photos of decomposing bodies, starving people, and death. The floor tiles were still moldy and stained from human bodies decomposing there. It was all I could do to keep my stomach from ending up on the floor as well. In other buildings, there were 2.5 x 6.5 ft stalls where prisoners were housed.
Barbed wire covered any open areas so that prisoners had no opportunity to jump and commit suicide. Chains and torture devices that I don’t even want to describe litter the rooms. Throughout the museum there are pictures of men, women and children that were once prisoners. The prison record estimates that in just the prison alone (not counting children), 20,000 Cambodians were murdered.
After the museum, we went to the killing fields and it was almost too much to take. This is where the government took people to be killed and buried. There were holes and depressions all over the fields which I later came to find out were mass graves. There were 84 mass graves. At one point, 300 adults and children were being executed per day. The largest mass grave had 450 corpses buried there. The government has tried to uncover all of the corpses and has tried to give the bodies a proper burial. They have erected a memorial with large shelves in it- all filled with skulls and bones.
Despite their efforts, flooding and rains bring more corpses and bones to the surface to this day. As we walked though the fields, we could see the ground littered with teeth and bones and tattered clothing. It was so overwhelming. In all, it is estimated that well over 2 million people were killed during this time. That is 1/5 of the population of Cambodia getting taken out in just the 4 year reign.
The communists were defeated in ’79. To this day, not everyone from the regime has been put on trial-most just blended back in with society and are trying to live normal lives or are hiding out in the jungle. The country is still reeling from this terrible time. Research has proven that a large majority of the population suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There is a huge generation gap now and the lack of education and health care is still a real problem due to the killings of intellectuals and medical professionals in the past.
I know this is a depressing and hard blog, but its true. This really happened. The most disgusting part of all of this is that I had no idea this happened. We’re talking about a genocide of a culture. Millions of people were killed. On the level of the holocaust and I had no idea. I just wanted to raise awareness of that, and to remind you to pray for Cambodia as they recover and try to overcome the darkness in their history. Pray that these people who have been marked by defeat, death, and corruption will be brought to a place of redemption and hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
