Phnom Pehn is a large noisy busy city and the capital of Cambodia. The Royal Palace dates back to the 15th century and has beautiful grounds. The current king lives here but behind the public areas. he is 53, has not married and does not have Cambodian blood (his mother is Vietnamese and father Italian).
Most people come to the city to see Tuol Sleng prison or S21. It was one of many prisons where people were brought to be tortured. It was once a high school, but since Pol Pot took over the country, schools, hospitals and any educational centre was banned. Anyone who was suspected of being a threat to his new society were tortured and executed. If they survived S21 they were then taken to the Killing Fields. They were bound and blindfolded and executed and dumped in mass graves. The Khmer Rouge did not shoot them, bullets were too scarce, they hit them with hoes, machetes or decapitated them saw palms. Children were murdered also as they could not work in the fields. Not everyone was dead when they were pushed into the mass graves, so DDT was then spread on them to dampen the smell and kill anyone who was not dead. Loudspeakers played music to drown out the screams as this killing field was next to farms and a town. There were dozens of prisons and killing fields throughout the country. Over 3 million Cambodians were murdered between 1975 to 1979, anyone who was educated or thought to be a threat to Pol Pot. They openly admitted to killing anyone they thought may be threat, no proof needed. The rest of the population from cities and towns were forced into the country to build dams, grow rice and other perform other menial labour. It was a dismal failure as they were given not instructions and most knew nothing about farming. Many
starved and were worked to death as there was not enough food. Pol Pot also traded 3 bags of rice for a gun with China depleting the food supply even further.
The Vietnamese forced Pol Pot (short for Political Potential named by the Chinese) from power but the misery for the Cambodians was not to end. Families were reunited but most of the men from the towns were forced to harvest timber which was sold to China, Vietnam and Thailand. This was dangerous work as the areas were full of landminds and many died or were maimed by them. It is sad to see the men missing limbs who cannot work and there is not public welfare so they often have to depend on the generosity of tourists.
There was no education between the early 1970's to 1993 so a large portion of the population cannot read or write.
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| Royal Palace |
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| Throne room, no pictures allowed |
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| the killing fields, bones and bits of clothing migrate to the surface from the shallow graves |
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| Tuol Sleng prison |
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| the classrooms were divided into cells which were less than 1 metre wide, the prisoners were removed from their cells to be tortured |
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