No cycling today since we had to cross the border from Vietnam to Cambodia, a journey that took 4 hours by speedboat. We had to disembark at two separate ports for customs out of Vietnam and in to Cambodia respectively. Our new guide, Polo, met us in Phnom Penh and took us on an atrocity tour. First stop was another killing field, but this time one specifically intended for the purpose. Second stop was S-21, a prison for suspected spies and their families – the order chosen mainly to avoid peak hour traffic. The history was too convoluted for me to follow, but the relevant aspects were that Pol Pot came into power in 1975 and advised people to leave the cities for a few days because the US were planning to bomb them.
Once the people were away from their homes, and in many cases isolated from their families, he turned them all into slaves, forcing them to grow rice. They were also only allowed to eat rice porridge, and anyone seen munching on a grasshopper found in the paddies would be punished. Punishment usually involved being move to a prison to be tortured. S-21 was one such prison. The Khmer Rouge destroyed temples, factories and education institutions, but some of these, including S-21 (an old school) were converted to prisons. Anyone disobeying orders or believed to be educated was brought to these prisons to be tortured until they confessed to being spies for the CIA or KGB. Once they confessed, they were taken to the killing fields.
In the killing fields, groups were made to dig their own grave, then blindfolded and made to kneel in beside the hole. They were then beaten with bamboo sticks or had their throats cut with serated palm fronds. This was done at night so nearby slaves wouldn’t see, and under cover of music so they wouldn’t hear. They would kill 300 per day, but the numbers of confessions grew so much that they had to erect a wooden cage to keep people until they could be processed.
We were a sombre group arriving at the hotel tonight.