Cambodia Killing Fields

As clichèd as it sounds this whole trip and travelling thing was 'to find myself'. The experience so far has been personal and spiritual as expected but also exceptionally educational.

After a visit to the Phnom Pehn killing fields (one of many in Cambodia) today it really opened up my eyes to their history. I knew quite a bit about the Vietnam War as it is well documented throughout our culture, i.e TV shows, films etc but I'm ashamed to say I knew nothing of the mass genocide that happened in Cambodia less than 40 years ago killing 3 million people within the space of 4 years 1975-1979. 

The tour was sombre, heartbreaking and shocking that such horrors happened such a short time ago. 

The Memorial Stupa which has stacks upon stacks of the skulls and bones discovered in the mass graves.

Arm bones that still had wire tied round them where victims hands had been bound. 

This tree was particularly upsetting, known as the killing tree, it was the one where soldiers would murder babies and children by holding their legs and swing and smash their heads against the tree before throwing them into a mass grave, where many women were found naked, where they had probably been raped before they were killed. The whole thing was just horrific. 

Walking around, there are still fragments of bone and pieces of clothing that are being uncovered, especially in rainy season. 

Having breakfast with a local in a tiny shack this morning, he told us about his experience and memories of the war. Telling us how he stumbled upon the killing fields in the early 80's (Pot Pol the leader of the Khmer Rouge were overthrown in 1979) looking for food as the country was still starving, and he saw the mass graves and the stench still lingering. He has never returned. 

Even our lovely TukTuk driver, who took us to both the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre (killing field) and S-21 prison and waited for us told of his mothers story. 30 years old he was born after, but his grandmother was one of those killed, which his mother still weeps about.

What is more shocking is that the world knew nothing about this. It's not like this was hundreds of years ago - Pol Pot even had UN officials fooled which is truly sad. 

In 1997 they begun proceedings to charge those responsible with these War Crimes. The trial did not begin untill 2007. Pol Pot died at his home in 1998 and was never bought to justice.

Auschwitz, Cambodia, Rwanda - Genocide is part of modern history which is still happening today in places like the Congo and who knows where else? Syria? Iraq? North Korea? 

The fact is we only see what our media and governments allow us to see and that is the most worrying aspect of all.