Cambodia - the Bad

I’ve never been a big history buff but this trip has me contemplating about subscribing for the History Channel. What’s particularly fascinating about SE Asia is that many of the seminal moments laden with civil war and mass bloodshed that define their socio/economic/political state have taken place during my lifetime or just before.

South Vietnam and the US attacked Cambodia in the early 70s in an effort to weaken the rebel communist forces of the Khmer Rouge and the Viet Cong. These attacks backfired as it created 2 million refugees that streamed into the cities, many of whom who joined the Khmer Rouge with a strong resolve against the US.  In 1975, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took power and ironically renamed the country Democratic Cambodia. In the back drop, the nation was going through a devastating famine that required external assistance to overcome. Pol Pot, however, took a dastardly approach to this problem. He decided to evacuate the cities and focus solely on agriculture, through manual labour rather than technology assistance. He effectively eliminated arts and culture in his country by destroying temples, libraries and schools and looked to rid his country of all intellectuals so that he could maintain power. We visited a school which was converted into a prison and interrogation centre, called Security Prison 21 or S21. During the four years of Pot’s reign from ’75-’79 over 17,000 prisoners were tortured in S21 with the goal of getting them to give up names of their family and friends that could threaten the paranoid Pot. Again, it was mainly educated people and those from the previous regime that were subjected to this horrible treatment. Ethnic Chinese were cleansed, and those with glasses were targeted because they were likely to be educated or professional. Eventually, Pot even turned on some members of his own government whom he suspected may undermine him and sent them to S21. The forced confessions that prisoners gave were a mix of true events and fictitious accounts of their links to the CIA, KGB or Vietnam. One of the displays at S21 showed the last sentence of one prisoner’s particular confession: I am not a human being. I am an animal.

S21 Museum

One of the room where prisoners were held and tortured

One of the prison cells

This is worth clicking on to enlarge. Simply barbaric.

After suffering from torture inflicted daily for 2-3 months, prisoners were taken to the Killing Fields where various weapons were used in their execution. They were then buried in mass graves in the grounds. We visited the Killing Fields which was another excruciating but necessary emotional experience. We saw the sites of the mass graves and read the descriptions of the savage executions that made us question how one human being could do this to another human being.

During the Khmer Rouge reign, it’s estimated that over 2 million Cambodians or 25% of the population was extinguished.  The war only ended after Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia in ’79. Yet due to corruption and very slow movement from the UN and the tribunals, it took 31 years before the first Khmer Rouge member was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and was sentenced to prison, shockingly only for 19 years.

A very tasteful display to commerorate those who died in the Killing Fields

Some of the mass graves

Sickening

Having visiting Rwanda and learning about its scarred history, there are several parallels to be drawn about the genocides both countries have endured. Essentially both countries suffered due to the whims of barbaric government leaders that were driven by a large dose of paranoia and craved indefinite control at any costs. There were so many illogical decisions yet so much coldly-calculated brutality.

However the post-war period shows some stark differences between the two countries that left us feeling incredible optimistic about Rwanda’s future and completely depressed about Cambodia. In Rwanda, they a president with 95% approval (some of it may be coerced) who’s intelligent, well-respected both internally and by foreign leaders and seems to have the well-being of the country and his people as his main priority. He wants Rwanda to reduce its dependency on foreign aid and for the people to have an urgency that drives them to do better. He’s a strong believer in education and is encouraging business development. His government has been quick to lead Rwanda to forgiveness so that the country’s collective psyche could move onto brighter days.

Conversely, Cambodia simply doesn’t have its shit together. It’s still in the infancy state of reconciliation. In the 80’s, the Khmer Rouge continued to exist and attack local resistant territories. This brought upon sanctions from the Western power and coupled with the impact of these attacks, reconstruction was halted and the country remained incredibly poor. It’s very dependent on its Asian neighbours, and goes as far as to outsource much of its commercial administration to Vietnam. It’s ranked 127^th in the world audit corruption rankings (Rwanda was 51^st) and we could sense the frustration amongst Cambodians. We spoke to a few locals who wanted to start businesses but kept running into roadblocks from the government. Education is available, but there’s not as much importance placed upon it as in Rwanda. And the sickening distribution of wealth is evidenced by the massive Lexus 570 SUVs which are apparently owned by government officials and NGO’s driving along the roads of Phnom Penh as poor children beg.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the BIG 570's so this will have to do

I know this is a depressing post and it took a while to gather my thoughts for this one. I promise the next post, Cambodia – the Good, will be more uplifting as I’ll focus on some of the amazing people who are making a difference there.