Killing Fields

The Pol Pot regime started its horrendous genocide against its own citizens around the same time as Jane and I got married.  We remember hearing all about it on the news and it was shocking how people were tortured and executed for being simply being educated,  wearing glasses or having smooth hands.

Seeing the reality really brought it home.  In 4 years Pol Pot killed 25% of the Cambodian population,  and it was done with such cruelty that we were truly shocked.  Particularly horrendous was the tree that the Khmer Rouge soldiers,  many of whom were teenagers themselves,  clubbed children to death by swinging them against the tree by their feet.

The descriptions on the audio  guide by some of the few survivors and Khmer Rouge veterans were chilling.   After visiting the Killing Fields memorial where this shot was taken we visited a high school which was used as a prison at the time.  The really shocking thing is that it still looks like a school with exercise equipment some of which was used to torture prisoners.  14,000 people entered the prison of which only 7 survived.  We actually met two of the survivors.  The remainder either died from the harsh torture regime at the prison or were despatched to the Killing Fields where they were hacked or beaten to death.

I'm sorry to share this awful story with you but it is so much a part of Cambodia that it has to be told.   The irony is that Khmer Rouge members of the time are currently serving in the government.

To cheer ourselves up we had a beer in the iconic Foreign Correspondents Club which has quite a few stories of its own to tell.

If you can stomach it,  there is more info here