Phenom Phen

We stopped at the capital of Cambodia to get our Vietnam visas. Michelle had scrapped her plans to visit India in favor of traveling longer with me. Phenom Phen was a nice Asian city, again on the Mekong. It had a few nice temples and a grand palace that was basically a much smaller, less ornate version of its Thai counterpart.

The main tourist "attractions" if you can call them attractions, were the S-21 prison, where the horrific Khmer Rouge tortured thousands of nationals they suspected to be traitors, forcing them to confess to crimes they never committed, then transferred to the killing fields for immediate execution.

In the early 1970's, Cambodia broke into civil war. Severely weakened by constant blanket bombing by the United States, the Sianouk's kingdom of Cambodia fell to the rebellious communists, the Khmer Rouge, who rallied enough support by the desperate farmer, whose lives had been destroyed by western powers. Capitalism was becoming a symbol for western oppression and the Cambodian people had tired of being bombed despite their neutral status during the American War (how the "Vietnam" war is called in Asia).

The Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, closing the borders and shipping all foreigners out of the country. Pol Pot's government had a grand plan that was executed in the most horrific ways. They believed that Cambodia should become a completely self-sufficient agricultural collective, a return to simpler times, before the corruption and the materialism spread, but with one central government to make sure all were fed doing their part. They evacuated the cities and sent everyone to agricultural work camps where the people became slaves for the government. It started out disastrously as a large percentage of the nation's population died during the initial migration. Food was rationed to near starvation levels. The former city dwellers became second class citizens under the villagers and were given far less food. Not there they was much food anyway, despite everyone in the nation's switch to agriculture, there was precious little food for the Cambodians to eat. In reality, the food was being sold for guns and ammuntion to wage war on the newly reunified Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands starved to death. Anybody associated with Sianouk's old government, lawyers, doctors, pretty much anyone with education were rounded up tortured in prison camps around the country and brutally murdered using sticks, hammers, and other crude instruments to save bullets. Babies bodies were whipped against trees.

Thankfully, the genocide and starvation only lasted for four years; the Vietnamese liberated the nation in 1979, installing a corrupt puppet government, though not well liked, was an improvement over the blind slaughter of citizens under Pol Pot.

Pol Pot and the Khmer rouge fled to the borderlands between Thailand and Cambodia and led a United States sponsored guerrilla war until 1993, leaving landmines scattered across the country that still kill thousands, even today. I was horrified by this fact that I never learned in school. The Khmer Rouge had a UN seat; the United States supported, armed, and funded the exiled government for 15 years after they committed the mass genocide of millions of their own citizens. they did this merely to covert continued war on the communist Vietnam to help prevent Asia from becoming communist. The Khmer Rouge let me add were communist as well. Eventually, the Khmer Rouge were finally hunted down and put on trial. Pol Pot died peacefully. Duch, the founder of the S-21 prison was the only one of the evil government to be captured and punished. For the murder of thousands, he got 35 years (reduced to about 20)in a cushy western political prison. Justice served.

So, suffice to say, it was the feel good tour of my trip. S-21 had the worst energy I've ever felt in my entire life. It was simply presented. The main torture building just had the beds and shackles in the center of the room. Some graphic, black and white photos of dead inmates taken during the liberation in a few of the rooms were unnecessary; I could feel the rooms that housed the most horrific acts. One room in particular floored me. Outside, I felt fine, but upon entering, I felt instant pain, as if somebody was driving their thumbs into my eyes and I could not breathe. I did not say anything to Michelle at first, but after we left the room, Michelle mentioned that it left her nauseated (I met another friend who had visited the prison and mentioned similar feelings in the exact same room). It was some serious bad juju. Some other rooms elicited similar effects, especially the blocks of tiny wooden holding cells, just big enough for somebody to lie down. There was a whole floor showing all the mug shots of the prisoners, The Khmer Rouge documented everyone. While in this room, there was a filming of a news story about another woman who had escaped, but was assumed dead until she saw her photo at the museum.

There was a fantastic room full of accounts of the soldiers working at the prison, telling of hew they had no choice but to commit terrible acts our of fear of the same being done to them. They also talked of dealing with having to do such things their lives afterward. It was a very tasteful, yet soberingly, painful museum. Except for the gift shop, which made me nearly as sick as the rest of the prison.

The Killing Fields were less intense. The whole area was turned into a park with paths going past the mass graves of the victims. The centerpiece was a giant stupa containing the skulls and clothing of many killed there. Sadly, this was one of many killing fields throughout the country. There was something chilling about walking through the paths with bone fragments and torn clothing of the victims still sticking out of the dirt. I personally wanted to torture the group of young Cambodians doing smiling "jumping" photos at such a peaceful, yet horrific place. Both museums were dedicated to peace and warning visitors of the reality of evil and how easily it can take over people and governments.

These places were all the more difficult because of the sad reality that these events were only thirty years ago. The holocaust in some ways is too distant to comprehend, but in Cambodia, every local over thirty lived in this dark time of our world's history. And genocide still happens.

What is more sad, is that my own government continues to ignore or support these acts in a vain attempt to make money. Southeast Asia has ultimately taught me how easily our government could turn against us. Even our current president, world-"saviour" Obama, signed laws to continue our own unethical torture and murder of our own citizens in the "war on terror." The Department of Homeland Security is using the same scare tactics and lies as Pol Pot to justify our own torture prisons. I honestly don't see the difference, except the scope and hell, we supported Pol Pot despite the murder of millions, so I really have little faith in the "goodness" of the American government. American citizens need to wake up, see these places first hand as a warning of what governments, acting for the "good" of the people, can do. Then maybe we can all stand up, tell our leaders that we don't want to be the next Cambodia. We don't support torture, racial profiling, genocide. We need to ignore the brainwashing of the media that is controlled by the same people who control our government and read the history of our evil nation and atrocities that it has committed and continues to commit around the globe, in the name of good and freedom they claim as their justification. We need to hold on to the rights that our forefathers gave us to prevent the current age of soft-despotism in which we currently live and not let fear-mongering force us to sacrifice these rights. Obama is nearly as bad as Nixon, he's just more savvy about it. He speaks well, is handsome with a good smile, but continues the work started by George W. with much of the legislation he passes. In some ways, I fear him more than George Bush because of the blind cult that surrounds him. Democrats are as corrupt as Republicans and it is time for some new leaders to take power before we become another version of 1970's Cambodia. Because, after all, the US helped create that beast.