Every country in the world has some kind of fractured of tortured history.Conflict plays a part in every country's development, and whether these conflicts are civil or international, they often help to shape an identity.
Take the United States for example, a country which freed itself from the rule of the British to gain independence. Rather than choosing to focus on the conflict itself, the US translate this into the patriotism we see not only on the 4th July, but in pretty much everything they do on the world stage.
Some countries have seen war devastate their land, and even in the last ten years or so we have witnessed scenes in the Middle East and North Africa as people battle against what they see as injustice.
Going to school in England we learn plenty of European history which spans from the World Wars to the French Revolution, but Asian history is something that is never really covered.
From living in Korea I learned a lot about the on-going tensions between the north and the south as well as the DPR's five attempts to invade by using tunnels which crossed the boundaries of the demilitarized zone.
It seems like an almost yearly event that during military exercises tensions rise as the US and South Korea's joint operations are frequently disrupted by North Korea 'accidentally' aiming their weapons a little too close.
Whilst I was there in 2009 it is believed that tensions were very strained between the two countries, and were it not for some Chinese intervention, the US were ready making official plans to launch a full-scale operation to liberate the north - so the story goes anyway. That certainly would have made for an interesting six or seven months in the country.
I am by no means a history buff, but reading about each country I visit or by looking up places I am going to see, I find bits of information here and there about the events which have shaped each country - or perhaps contributed to their perception amongst the rest of the world.
In Malaysia I found out more about the British's control over territory and in the Philippines I learned how how the Japanese were eventually removed, leading to the creation of a republic which is currently in place today.
With a trip to Vietnam coming up next week I expect I will be learning a lot about its tortured history and gradual rebuilding, but I have to say that I am yet to discover much about Cambodia to this point.
Before coming I knew that some atrocities took place here, and I'd read that the name Pol Pot was frequently mentioned a lot in relation to them, but I wasn't fully aware of what occurred.
My aim for today was to discover a little more about my current location's story.
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As well as having street names for the main roads, they use a system of numbers for the side roads with all horizontal streets being even numbered, and all vertical roads being odd - it's very confusing for someone like me who always uses maps, and relies on a slightly less difficult way of working for navigation. When I first got here I had to commit my road number to memory to make sure that I was able to just count through them if I ever got lost.
Last night I had spent some time working out what I want to do whilst I am here, I factored in that on Monday I will hopefully be getting my visa arranged (despite the lack of a time-scale for how long it might take.) I went worse case scenario and figured that it would take an entire day to sort out, and that I'd have to spend a couple of hours another day going to collect it, and this gave me the chance to split my activities up and deciding what to do each day.
Today I was going to make another attempt at finding somewhere to get passport photos done, but that was a peripheral task along the way.
My first stop of the day was the Museum of Genocide - I know, perhaps not the first place you'd want to visit on a Sunday morning, but I had read lots about how important a place it is in this city, and I was intrigued to learn more about the history of Phnom Penh.
The museum was in roughly the same direction as the Vietnamese embassy so I took to the road again, and tried to navigate my way there as best I could. It was really hot today, so I made an early stop to get some drink when it dawned on me that this might be one of the only places in the world where things actually close on a Sunday. By close, I don't mean close early as the embassy had, I mean just generally not open - in the west I'm not sure we're familiar with that concept any more as everything seems to be open unless it's Christmas or New Year's Day!
Tuol Sleng, of S-21, was a school before it turned into a prison camp under the Khmer Regime. It has been left in tact since being liberated as a constant reminder of the horrors that took place there - many of which I learned on a tour today.
I've never been to Auschwitz, but I imagine the same eerie feeling hangs over the former Nazi prison camp as does in S-21. I always find it strange when a tourist attraction has such a sombre feeling around it, and I imagine I will discover the same atmosphere when I visit Japan and go to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorials towards the end of my trip.
The first thing that was striking about S-21 was how cold and depressing it looked from the outside. It was split into two different sections with Building A and B of the compound separated from C & D by a line of trees:
It's quite hard to describe how the museum itself is set out, but what I will say is that it is extremely thought provoking, and informative. I learned so much information, and took so much from it that I think half of it might end up slipping out. One thing to take away though is a sense that these events only took place in the 1970's and to me that is a scary thought as we're not far removed from all the information I discovered taking place.
The museum did a great job of breaking information down to someone like me who has no previous knowledge of the subject matter. The first room you entered explained the atrocities which took place, and from then on each room of the ground floor of Building A was filled with a prison bed and a photo of what was found there. Some had the shells of batteries lying in the middle of the room which were used as part of the torture process, others had chains which had been used to lock the prisoners up.
As I mentioned earlier, I don't claim to be a historian, but my knowledge started to grow as the day went on:
In the aftermath of World War II, povety had struck Cambodia pretty hard, and when Pol Pot's Kymer Rouge party took power in 1975 they attempted to create what Pot saw as a 'perfect' communist society (with the eventual goal of everyone being equal).
They abandoned the currency, and began to arrest and imprison scholars, teachers, academics, monks and doctors as well as anyone who opposed their ideas.
Many were brought to S-21 and accused of crimes they did not commit. This led to torture until these people were eventually forced to falsely confess just to make the horrific torture stop, and in doing so they were killed on account of treason.
Imprisonment was brutal with water-boarding, electrocution, beatings and suffocation all common place.
Access to Cambodia was very limited to 'foreigners' and somehow this was all kept secret from the world. It took until 1979 before it was eventually discovered what was happening, and it took the invading armies of Vietnam to discover the dark secrets of Pol Pot's regime.
There's a lot more to the story, and I would definitely recommend reading up about it, especially if this is the first time you have heard these details mentioned.
Continuing along there were some very gruesome pictures of what took place, and it took a moment for the reality to sink in that the things these photographs depicted actually took place in the rooms I was standing in. It was certainly very hard to imagine, and a very depressing thought indeed.
Moving up to the second floor this gave more information about events which unfolded. There were descriptions of Sweden's involvement, and how Cambodia's ruthless leaders somehow became allies with the Scandinavian nation by convincing them that there were no merciless killings or a prison camp, and that it was all just propaganda from the US and China.
There were some photos which showed propaganda scenes of happy children and locals enthused with the Khmer Rouge's reign. It was quite clear that this also had an effect on the Cambodian people who saw nothing of what actually took place, and genuinely believed the false promises of Pol Pot who promised to help people out of their post-war struggles.
Building B had lots of visual works on the prisoners themselves. It is believed that 17,000 people were held at S-21, and this building showed photos of their 'mugshots' which were taken, and a description of how people were arrested at night so citizens were not aware of what was going on. It also discussed how arrests were made by convincing people that they and their families were going to be moved to safety.
The top floor of this building also described how the museum is set out to educate, and what the plans are for expansion and education in the future. It has a clear vision which should see is playing an even more important role in Phnom Penh once also the renovations have been completed.
The bottom floor of building C contained more photos of prisoners, and it also explained about some of the devices which were used to torture those who were brought to S21. Between building B and C were the gallows used to water-board people into confessing, and also there was also an illustration of how guards would often cut prisoners and then pour things onto their wound to make it cause extreme pain:
On the second floor of the building was an example of the rooms for prisoners which were basically small cubicles which were maybe 2m long and less than 1m wide. There were rows and rows of them lined up next to one another and on the outside balcony area there was barbed wire put up to prevent escaped prisoners from committing suicide by jumping off.
The top floor of Building C was a slightly lighter experience, telling the tales of the seven people who survived the prison camp. Each one gave a detailed account of how and why they were arrested as well as why their life was spared. It was interesting to read, and I'm sure like all of the victims of war and suffering these people have incredible stories to tell.
The last building had a theatre on the top floor where documentaries are shown throughout the day, and also where the education centre is planned to be built. The bottom floor had two rooms, and in each of them was information about the perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge's atrocities, and it alarmed me to read that some of them only went on trial as late as 2009.
I'm not are of the current status of any of these cases, but it was interesting to learn about the trials they were going through and how each person had been charged with a combination of things including war crimes and crimes against humanity. The middle floor had testimony from former guards at the prison who were forced to work at S-21 to save their families lives.
The room was filled with pictures of them in the past, and then a recent one along side it and it was eye-opening to read their reasons behind joining the Khmer Rouge. It was interesting that some showed remorse whilst others seemed to suggest as though they were doing it to protect themselves from the same fate as the prisoners.
It's one of those places that brings a horrific event to life, and makes you consider how fortunate you are to live the life you do.
I remember in Year Ten we went on a week long trip to the historical sights of the First and Second World Wars in France and Belgium. By then I had some understanding of what destruction both of those conflicts had caused across the world, and I remember that it felt very strange to be going to bed feeling deflated every night because of what you had been looking at or learning about each day.
Even though these kinds of events are horrific I think there is great value in going to places like S-21 so that you can appreciate such terrible events. Being there in person really gives it a magnitude that you don't get from looking at photographs or watching videos.
These kinds of places are always very respectful, sombre locations and there were very few conversations being held as people took in all of the information that was being presented to them.
I remember going to Ground Zero in New York, and feeling a similar sense of being overwhelmed by what I was seeing, and through knowing what had taken place. I think that as morbid and depressing as it was visiting S-21, it was an important activity for me to do on this trip as it relates directly to the history of the country that I am in just as any other building or historical site would. Just so happens that culture changing atrocities took place at this one.
I left the museum at about 3pm so still had a bit of the afternoon to spend in the city. I decided to head towards the central market which us a spider-shaped looking building about ten minutes down the road from my hotel. It looked to be extremely busy and I had a quick walk through just as a passing interest:
Continuing to walk up the road I headed towards Wat Phnom, which is an impressive looking temple sitting on a hill just by the riverside.
It took a while but I eventually found it, and walked around at the top for a while. It wasn't anything too spectacular, just a good view of Phnom Penh and the riverside which I intended to head to next:
I'm hopefully of being able to do a river cruise whilst I'm here in the capital as I'd seen that boats travel up and down the Mekong throughout the evening. For tonight though, I was just on a walk as the sun was going down. The area was quite busy with people and there were a number of restaurants on the riverside as well as shops and souvenir stalls. I guess this is probably where quite a few hotels are located too, taking advantage of the river view:
Once I'd completed the circuit I came back to my hotel briefly to take a shower pretty much being out in the sun the whole day, and then I decided to just pop to the restaurant next door for dinner to make things easy.
It feels like it has been a long but productive day. I think the 36 degree weather and the emotionally draining subject matter of S-21 has taken it out of me as I'm feeling rather tired this evening.
I didn't get a chance to go for a dip in the pool tonight as the moment I stepped through my door the heavens opened.
We experienced two more brief power cuts tonight, but thankfully they didn't take too long and they didn't stop me from emptying all of the information I'd collected in my brain about the museum.
Always Suffering
Rolling Stones (1997)
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