Killing Fields - Cambodia blog entry #6

Tuesday, September 17, was our trip to hell. The thing is we came back out into the blazing Cambodian heat and rain to live another day. Unlike 2 million Cambodians who didn’t live through the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975 to 1979. 

Again, I cannot believe that at the time, my 12-year-old brain only knew of the Vietnam War and that when the US pulled out, we gave up on the country and let the communists have their way. I didn't know that Cambodia had been an innocent victim of war just because of its location. And there I was, 50 years ago thinking only of some 12^th century temple in the jungle. 

So, that Tuesday when I was in Cambodia last month, our first stop of the day was the Choeung Ek Killing Fields, where 8,895 bodies were discovered after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. It is believed that many more were buried there as fragments of human bone continue to surface. It is only one of 300 such mass grave locations throughout Cambodia. 

The tour of the grounds was chilling, and it wasn’t from the rain showers which fell on us most of the morning. 

As I left the main grounds to walk around the pond on the east side of the grounds, I listened through my headset to stories of survivors and witnesses of these atrocities. The rain fell steadily on the borrowed umbrella I held over my head. It all felt so very surreal.

How was any of this possible? How did Hitler’s Holocaust happen? Or Rwanda or Darfur? How can any human being subject another human being to such absolute and utter cruelty and dehumanization? And how – why is it still going on right now, in this year, in places around the world? 

Two last thoughts.

Believe it or not, after sharing all of this, I skipped one thing on the grounds of Choeung Ek. It was even more horrific than any of this. If your curiosity gets the better of you, click this link.

And lastly, we weren’t done for the day. My blog post next week is even more sobering.