1. You must answer according to my questions. Do not turn them away.
2. Do not try to hide the facts by making pretexts of this and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Do not be a fool for you are a chap who dares to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Do not tell me either about your immoralities or the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing. Sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Do not make pretexts about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your jaw of traitor.
9. If you do not follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
10. If you disobey any point of my regulations, you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.
These words were written on the wall of each cell of Tuol Sleng, a security prison of the Pol Pot regime in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Tuol Sleng, or S-21 (Security Office 21), was housed in a converted high school in a quiet suburb of Phnom Penh. The location itself, amidst a residential area of Phnom Penh, is all the more chilling for its location. Any visit to Cambodia is not complete without a visit to this prison, now turned into a museum, to see the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge (Red Khmer) regime between 1975 and 1979.
Cambodia as a country is only just recovering from thirty years of civil war. Pol Pot himself, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, died relatively recently, in 1998 (April 15). In fact, some people do not believe he has died, as he was cremated soon after he died, without any official autopsy. And the Khmer Rouge, as a party, were officially outlawed in the same year, 1998, that is, over twenty years after they committed the atrocities, mass murders, and genocide of the 1970s.
Pol Pot, Brother Number One in the Khmer Rouge regime, is a name that still sends shivers down the spine of most Cambodians and foreigners alike. It was Pol Pot who was most associated with the bloody madness of the regime he led between 1975 and 1979. During this time, millions of Cambodians were killed or starved to death in "The Killing Fields", immortalised in Roland Joffe's 1984 film of the same name. After the Khmer Rouge's overthrow in 1979, by the Vietnamese army, Pol Pot fled to the jungle near the Thai border, and the Khmer Rouge continued engaging in guerrilla warfare aimed at demoralising its opponents. During this time, they were supplied with aid and military equipment by the Chinese, supported by the USA. And the USA also provided diplomatic support to the Khmer Rouge, and backed the Khmer Rouge delegate as the official representative of Cambodia at the UN. For the remainder of Pol Pot's life, just knowing he was still alive was traumatic and unjust for the Cambodian people. Nowadays, 20th May is National "Hate" Day in Cambodia, to mark public anger against the Khmer Rouge-led genocide.
Pol Pot was born Saloth Sar in a small village in Cambodia in 1925. He had a relatively privileged upbringing, and, as a young man, he spent several years studying in Paris. Apparently it was here that he developed his radical Marxist beliefs. Back in Cambodia, Saloth Sar became a schoolteacher, entered politics in the late 1950s and joined the Khmer Rouge in the 1960s. He became its leader in the 1970s, and took over Phnom Penh, and practically the whole of Cambodia in 1975.
Cambodia has had a turbulent history since WWII, highlighted by Japanese occupation in WWII, the French-Viet Minh war in neighboring Vietnam and Laos, declaration of independence in 1953, and the American intervention in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia itself in the 1960s and 1970s. Between 1969 and 1973, huge areas of eastern Cambodia were carpet-bombed by US B-52s in a secret programme to eradicate suspected communist base camps. This bombing (more than 500,000 tons) killed uncounted thousands of civilians and turned hundreds of thousands more into refugees. At that time, Cambodia was run by Lon Nol, who was installed and supported by the USA, and the Khmer Rouge were fighting to overthrow his regime. The US bombing alienated large segments of the population, enabling the Khmer Rouge to grow rapidly by recruitment. Despite massive US military and economic aid, Lon Nol never succeeded in gaining the initiative against the Khmer Rouge, and, on 17th April 1975 (two weeks before the fall of Saigon), Phnom Penh surrendered to the Khmer Rouge.
Clearing landmines
Upon taking Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge implemented one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of a society ever attempted; its goal was to transform Cambodia into a Maoist, peasant-dominated, agrarian co-operative. Within two weeks, the entire population of Phnom Penh and provincial towns, including hospital patients, was forced to march out to the countryside and organised into slave-labour teams to work for twelve to fifteen hours a day. The advent of Khmer Rouge rule was proclaimed "Year Zero". Currency was abolished and postal services were halted. Except for one fortnightly flight to Beijing (China was providing aid and advisors to the Khmer Rouge), the country was cut off from the outside world.
It is still not known how many Cambodians died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge over the next four years. Estimates range from one to three million (the population was then around seven million). Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces. Tuol Sleng, or S-21, became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. More than 17,000 people held at S-21 were taken to the extermination camp of Choeung Ek (15 kms from central Phnom Penh) to be executed. After digging their own graves, the favourite method of execution was a blow to the back of the head, and then the throat was slit.
Inside the memorial stupa
The stupa - A closer look
Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge was meticulous in keeping records of its barbarism. Each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed, sometimes before and after being tortured. The museum displays room after room of these photographs of men, women and children covering the walls from floor to ceiling; virtually all the people pictured were later killed. Several foreigners from Australia, France and the USA were held here before being murdered. In S-21, the prisoners were kept in small cells and shackled with chains fixed to the walls or the concrete floors. Prisoners held in the large mass cells had one or both of their legs shackled to short or long pieces of iron bars. Other rooms in S-21 were used as interrogation rooms, using various methods of torture. The instruments of torture are on display in glass cases in the museum, and the methods are depicted in paintings by some of the very few prisoners who remained alive. Young boys were indoctrinated and used as prison guards. As the Khmer Rouge revolution reached new heights of insanity, it began devouring its own children. Groups of executioners and torturers who worked here killed their predecessors, and were in turn killed by those who took their places.
During its regime, the xenophobic government in Phnom Penh instigated a series of border clashes with Vietnam. In December 1978, Vietnam launched a full scale invasion of Cambodia (which invasion was condemned by both China and the USA), toppling the Pol Pot government in January 1979. On entering Phnom Penh, and the Tuol Sleng prison, they found only seven prisoners alive. Fourteen others had been tortured to death as Vietnamese forces were closing in. Photographs of their gruesome death are on display in the rooms were their decomposing forces were found. Their graves are nearby in the courtyard.
Of course, there is a lot more to see in Cambodia apart from the remnants left by the Khmer Rouge regime. The scenery is typical Indochina, mainly flat plains, rice fields and rivers. The two main geographical features are the Tonle Sap Lake, in the centre of Cambodia, and the Mekong River, which passes through Phnom Penh, in the southern part of Cambodia. The Tonle Sap is linked to the Mekong at Phnom Penh by a 100-km-long channel known as the Tonle Sap River. In the rainy season (May to October) the level of the Mekong rises, backing up the Tonle Sap river and causing it to flow north-west into the Tonle Sap lake. During this period, the Tonle Sap lake swells from 3000 sq km to over 7500 sq km. As the water level of the Mekong falls during the dry season, the Tonle Sap river reverses its flow, draining the waters of the lake back into the Mekong. This extraordinary process makes the Tonle Sap one of the world's richest sources of freshwater fish.
And then there are the temples of Angkor, in the northern part of Cambodia. These are considered one of the foremost architectural wonders of the world. The Angkor temples were built between the 9th and 14th centuries, when Khmer civilisation was at the height of its extraordinary creativity. From Angkor, the kings of the mighty Khmer empire ruled over a vast territory that extended from the tip of what is now southern Vietnam to Yunan in China and from Vietnam west to the Bay of Bengal. Angkor's 100 or so temples constitute the sacred skeleton of a spectacular administrative and religious centre. Its houses and public building have long since decayed away, as they were built of wood - the right to structures of bricks or stone was reserved for the gods.
The Khmer empire went into decline after the death of Jayavarman VII around 1220. The Thais sacked Angkor in 1351, and in 1431 they sacked it again. Until the 19th century, Angkor was "lost" to the outside world, and was overrun by the jungle. It was then "discovered" in the 1860s by French explorers, and this created a great deal of interest in Cambodia. From that time on, Angkor became the target of French expeditions.
The temples of Angkor are spread over about 100 sq km. The chief attractions are Angkor Wat, the "city" of Angkor Thom (principally the Bayon), and Ta Phrom. Ta Phrom is famous for having been left to the jungle, with dislodged stones and massive trees growing straight through the walls, and it is truly amazing. It was also the location for part of the filming of the Tomb Raider movie, starring Angeline Jolie as Lara Croft.
There are many other interesting things to sample in Cambodia, such as the delicacy of the town of Skuon: deep-fried four-inch spiders. And one can also see land-mine-clearing teams at work in the countryside around Siem Reap, near Angkor. Cambodia might not be on everyone's itinerary, but it is definitely a most interesting travel experience.
Buddhist monk with acolytes
Discussing a tricky point
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