Today we went to two memorials and museums that illustrate the terrible genocide that Cambodia suffered during the reign of Pol Pot. During this period (1975 - 1979) over 3 million Cambodians were murdered by the ruthless Pol Pot regime. This accounted for 1 in 4 people in the country. One of my new friends from Cambodia, Piseth lost his mother and sister, Aunt and uncle. When Pol Pot came to power, the country originally embraced him as he represented change. Immediately upon assuming power they began emptying the cities and killing all of the educated people. Anyone who was learned or a tradesman was killed. Families were turned against each other and the children were drafted as ruthless soldiers to kill and torture their fellow Cambodians.
We began the tours at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which is in Phenom Penh and was once a school. Pol Pot turned this school into the infamous Office 21 or S-21. It was used to imprison thousands of men women and children. They were tortured until they confessed to plotting against Pol Pot and then murdered. I viewed the horrible cells, torture devices, and pictures of all the prisoners that the torturers took when they entered the prison. In the center are 14 graves of the 14 bodies that were found when the camp was liberated. They were murdered at the last moment as the regime tried to escape. Inside the former classrooms, they used bricks to create tiny prison cells. they would chain up hundreds of people in stock like chains one right next to the other and take them for torture. It was a very very sad and frightening place.
The second place we went, which is in the pictures attached is The Choeung Ek Genocidal center. This is a place on the outskirts of the city which was a killing field along the river. The regime would take blindfolded people there on trucks and murder up to 300 a day. They would not use bullets as they were too expensive. they used shovels and other tools to murder them. This place was only to kill. They poured DDT and other chemicals on the bodies to try to keep the terrible smells hidden from the city. As you look through the pictures below (graphic) you will see a building in the center of the museum that houses over 800 human skulls that were recovered when they dug the area up after the war ended in order to document the murders and inter the people properly. It is called the Memorial Stupa. Also you can see the graves that are protected by roofs and dug up mass graves that are covered by grass. You will see a glass box full of clothing recovered as a way to remember the dead. You will see on top of the box bones, a jaw and other things. You see there were so many murdered that as it rains here, those bones continue to surface even though they were dug up. One picture shows clothing surfacing along with a leg bone and that is in the path that you walk! You will see the killing tree. The soldiers would seize babies from the mothers and holding them by the feet smash them against the tree until dead.
Lastly two pictures of the skulls. A horrible sight. I couldn't help but wonder who these people were. It was all so terribly sad.
As we all gathered together after the viewing under a beautiful tree along the side of the museum, Jennifer George talked to us about what we all need to do to avoid such a thing. We know we cannot trust everything governments and the press say, we need to be curious and ask questions, we need to ensure that when we see wrongs we speak up and fight them, we need to love one another and we need to heed the messages of the Bible and what God tells us to do in treatment of one another.
This was such an emotional visit. There were very few if any dry eyes.
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