Three wolves™

While in Phnom Penh, we all went out to visit the Choeung Ek memorial, otherwise known as the ‘Killing Fields’, where a massive number of Cambodians were taken to be slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge communinist regime. The numbers killed are estimated to be 17,000 between 1975 and 1979.

They were buried in mass graves, and in order to save ammunition, executions were often carried out using hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks.

It was pretty rough going visiting that place, and most people walking around in contemplative silence. To see a hole where over 600 headless people were dug up is something pretty gut-wrenching.

The place is pretty quiet now. In fact there is a school nearby, and as we walked around that place where so much hatred and blood was poured out, it was a comforting contrast to hear the voices of kids laughing and playing outside.

We headed back into town to visit Toul Sleng (S21 - now a musuem) where the prisoners were held before being taken out to the killing fields. This one-time school was turned into a place of torture and cruelty under the Khmer Rouge regime, and as we walked around the rooms we saw rusting beds where prisoners were chained up, starved, beaten, mutilated and treated in the most inhumance ways known to man. It’s hard trying to find words to describe the madness.

We retreated to a restaurant near the museum, and sat mostly in silence as we mulled over the days’ sights. Not a fun day by and stretch of the imagination, but a very powerful and moving day none the less.