The other side of the story

If you didn’t know any better you’d think that life in Phnom Penh has always been so laid-back. The terraces by the river, the markets where anything from food to TVs can be bought, the asphalt main streets and the small streets that won’t be asphalted for a long time… Everything seems dipped in the French colonial sauce which makes it all a treat for the eyes. Most tourists enjoy this richness and outward appearance of luxury without asking the question, How is it all possible?

In the fifties, Cambodia was one of the more developed Asian countries. However idealistic Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge may have been in some people’s views, all they did was lead to the oppression and exploitation of the locals. The Year Zero was introduced to convince everyone that the past didn’t exist. In the same vein, experts in any field had to be disposed of. Two classes, the working class and the farmers, were seen as the backbone of the new economy. In meetings that were so public there weren’t even chairs, so-called ‘criminals’ were ‘given the opportunity’ to confess their wrongdoings. These wrongdoings could include working as a teacher (!), cabinet minister, scientist or any occupation which required a brain, or even worse, using it. Onlookers would clap their hands as the ‘criminal’ was called forward, only to be led away with a plastic bag pulled over his or her head and thrown into the rice fields.

According to a guest in the B&B where I was staying, the best order to learn more about these events was to first watch the film ‘The Killing Fields’, followed by a visit to the Tuol Sleng Museum and finally, a visit to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. This is exactly what I did. I can’t recommend the film highly enough. It did surprise me that this film could be made as early as 1984, for things hadn’t been sorted out yet by then. The film gives you a fairly good idea of what went on. The Tuol Sleng Museum is the location of a former school that was changed into a prison cum chamber of horrors. Hitler’s old chums were nothing compared with the sadists who carried out the experiments in this prison and the living conditions inside didn’t allow for much of a life. One small brick cell hardly takes up 1.5 square metres. All that’s inside is a bottle to pee into and an empty oil can to poo into. Plus a chain to keep the prisoner where he or she was. How much does a certain sense of humour say about different peoples’ cultures? I wonder, when a group of Japanese teenagers have their pictures taken there, each taking their turn to stand behind the bars, their hands folded behind their backs. In another building the instruments of torture are on display: whips, chords, water tanks into which people were hung upside down, so that they nearly drowned, the famous pincers they used to cut off women’s nipples, etc. etc. There were also paintings of babies being thrown into the air and ‘caught’ (=pierced) by bayonets. Or they were held by the ankles so that their heads could be smashed into tree trunks. Their mothers had to watch with their hands and feet tied... My visit to The Killing Fields made me cover my face in horror. There is a pagoda (a sort of holy tower) which is filled with the clothes, skulls and bones of all the people who were killed here. Their remains were found in the mass graves nearby. It does make you go very silent.

Corruption; the assassination of women who stand for an election; the sad situation in the country; many, many landmines; it’s all still here. At the same time it’s incredible how quickly this country is recovering and being rebuilt. In fact, there is a lot of building going on around here and the freedom of press, too, is flourishing. Tourists are nicely kept on the paved roads and are unconsciously sponsoring the project. The Cambodians are free to speak their minds about the past - and so they do. But it will take some time before their scars have healed.

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