phnom penh

It took me a while to pronounce Phnom Penh correctly. It just looks funny! But the same was true for learning new Khmer words. Thank you, one beer please, etc. Maybe my brain is tiring of learning new words! But I'm getting there now.

Phnom Penh was once a beautiful city. The French, as in most cities in Indo-China, left a legacy of great architecture and sound city planning. But that was before Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge came to power and started the terror. The very fabric of this country was ripped out not so long ago. I am certain the wounds are still very much open although the Khmer smile always does a good job of masking the collective pain.

I strongly recommend you find out about their 1975-1979 reign of terror. By some estimates, a quarter of the population were killed. That's up to two million people. The Khmer Rouge wanted to create the perfect agrarian society. Everyone would be a farmer. Money was abolished along with titles, education to be limited, land ownership banned and most radical of all, the urban areas were to emptied.

The urban people were treated as dirt. Especially if educated or even if there was a preception of being educated. Methods for ascertaining your level of education included if one wore glasses, if one had soft palms, if one spoke well. If it was established that one was educated, death would surely follow. Usually at the hands of ruthless teenagers. These were the most ardent Khmer Rouge followers. (Rank was denoted by the number of ball-point pens held within the breast pocket!) Oh, and if you thought that a bullet would end your time in the world then you'd be wrong. You were usually beaten to death with whatever came to hand. The bullets, you see, were needed for fighting standing armies.

I went to the killing fields where 10,000 people were put to death. Young children were swung by their feet and their heads battered against a tree. Loud music was played to drown out screams. I was amazed to see human bones still lying about the place. The famous skulls are all preserved (thankfully) within a tall shrine. Shame on the Cambodian government though for selling off this awful place to a Japanese tourism company. Crass and disgraceful. They have a name for this new market of tourism and it's called 'dark tourism'. Immoral, I say, to franchise death.

I also went to the torture centre, known as S21, where people were subjected to the most terrible torture and humilation. The Khmer Rouge, like their Nazi bedfelllows, were good record takers. When they fled the city before the Vietnamese army, they hadn't a chance to destroy everything. Every inmate had a mugshot (taken by a 9 year old photographer, for heavens sake) and these pictures are displayed within the walls of this one time secondary school. It's harrowing. Many of the mugshots were of young children. The terror in their eyes is unmistakeable.

It is a terrible, terrible tradegy. The Khmer people must be one of the most hospitable and warm people I have ever met. I really impressed by their gentle ways and playful laughter. The khmer smile deserves all the praise I have heard. It is something else. It seems to me, from my travels, that it is often the people of the countries that have suffered most, that are the most friendly.