Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is a step back in time, not greatly changed from the days of French colonial rule. Like the cities I grew up in in Taiwan, most buildings are two or three stories, and off the major arteries, many streets are dirt. It is a city of about two million people. With mostly small motorcycles and proportionately few cars, the traffic has a much easier flow than the teeming cities of the Asian Tiger nations. One senses growth and intensity in this city. Yet, there is only one modern six story shopping mall, and the chain restaurants are only just beginning to arrive.
My brother, Sam, his brother-in-law, Doug and I all flew in on different flights into Phnom Penh, Cambodia and rendezvoused at the downtown Scandic Hotel on December 2, 2004. Sam came in from Shanghai via Hong Kong, Doug came in from Taipei and I came in from Seattle via Tokyo and Bangkok.
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Our small hotel used to be a colonial home in the days of French rule,
and it, like other old large homes in the area, was walled and with big leafy trees shading its courtyard.
A room with three beds was $30 per night, and Doug and I visited upstairs
in the shaded outdoor cafe while waiting for Sam to arrive. As sun
set, we did a walk along wide boulevards to the Mekong River. At the river we found
large expensive hotels, some old and some new, and an expanse of park
where the city comes at night to cool off. Vendors of every
description sold food, and cheap plastic wares. An amusement park,
much on the scale of a traveling U.S. carnival, had rides for small
children, a roller blading rink and a ping pong concession. There were very few lights
on, and those that existed were of low wattage, giving the whole area a
very dim, muted feel.
Independence Monument |
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The Killing Fields
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We bounced over rutted dirt for 15 kilometers out of the city, to what
could have been a peaceful farming area by a river, dotted with tall
sugar palms and roamed by scattered groups of brahma cattle.
However, here in a tower monument, were stacked the over 8,000 sculls
exhumed from the pits in this area. Most of the sculls are
fractured. To save precious bullets, the Khmer Rouge soldiers would
stand the victims by the edge of the pit and club them to death.
Other victims worked inside the pit, removing clothing and anything of
value. The sanctuary offers the puzzling contrast of a peaceful,
tranquil setting, and some of the most horrific brutality imaginable.
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Mass graves in a tranquil setting. |
A monument of 8,000 sculls, a permanent reminder. |
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Back in the city, we went to a walled school campus, very reminiscent of
the three storied concrete high schools we saw in Taiwan. Here, at
the Tuol Sleng torture center, between 2,000 and 5,000 prisoners of
interest were kept at a time. They were interrogated and tortured for usually about four
months, and finally exterminated. The methods were inhumane to the
extreme. Careful records were kept of the of victims, complete
with photographs. Photographs and paintings depict the methods of
torture. One room has pictures of the torturers themselves,
then and now, and comments as to why they did what they did. When
the Khmer Rouge finally capitulated rule, it was under the provision of
amnesty; so many of these who committed the terror now live
among those who were affected. An uneasy tolerance prevails.
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One of many torture rooms. |
Photos of children exterminated. |
To be clear, the killing fields and the torture museum are a part of Cambodia's history. Today, Cambodia has a parliamentary style government and it is rapidly catching up to its more prosperous Asian neighbors. Tourism is flourishing. The rest of this story portrays a much more inviting Cambodia, as it exists today.
Don Webster: websterdr@yahoo.com
