Today we spent the day touring the Killing Fields and the S21 Prison in Phnom Penh. Most depressing day ever... I've read about four or so books about Cambodia's recent history and it's really hard to stomach all that the Cambodian people have been through. It started with the U.S. bombing the rural areas during the Vietnam war because the Vietcong were hiding there (hey America, stop bombing everybody, it's hateful and we regret it everytime). About 600,000 innocent lives were lost as well as many injuries. Then around 1976 a communist leader named Pol Pot took over Cambodia. In order to create a utopian society, he wanted to rid the country of all western influence and also all upper middle class people. His group (called the Khmer Rouge), rounded up the people in the cities and took them to the countryside where they were forced to do manual labor. There, many of them were executed or starved to death. The killing field that we went to today was a mass grave site of over 19,000 innocent people who were savagely murdered by their own government. The cost of bullets was too high so they were killed with common farm tools and then buried. It was a horrific site to see...some to the methods used to kill are so disgusting that I don't even want to think about them enough to write them here. The prison that we saw was where many of them were taken before being executed for crimes that they never committed. The hardest part of the tour was a room that had pictures of the victims... one wall was children, there was one particular picture that caught my eye... it was a little boy with chubby cheeks who was no older than two. The government had a saying about killing children because to kill grass you must pull it out by the roots. There was a big tree at the killing field where members of the Khmer Rouge admitted to grabbing babies by the legs and beating them off if the tree until they died, it makes me want to puke. It is estimated that about 2 million people were killed within a two year time span... it was about 25% of the population. It was so sad to think that many of the people in Cambodia over the age of 38 saw these horrific acts of violence happen all around them... its scary to think that there are also many people who committed these acts of violence and are still running the streets. Even though there has been a change in government (sort of), many of the people responsible for these acts have not been prosecuted.
It gets almost worse... Cambodia continues to be in disarray. Despite the U.N. intervention and a ton of money from the international community, it has not been able to recover. With the exception of the tourist sites, many Cambodias live in the same conditions that they lived in over a thousand years ago, but on top of the poverty you add fear and mental health issues due to trauma. The Khmer Rough basically ruined what infracture that the country had and killed most of the educated class. Before the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia had about 943 doctors... when they were over thrown, there were only 50 left. The same is true with educators. This has made it difficult for Cambodia to pick itself back up. It's also estimated that about 47% of the population has PTSD and that it is actually past onto the next generation. The plight of women here is so bleak I can't even take it, and kids even bleaker. It's estimated that 25% of women are severly beaten by their husbands and child rape seems almost common (about 80% of reported rapes are of children). Prostitution/sexual slavery is a huge business that is difficult to combat because the brothels owners pay off the police. About one third of the prostitutes are children. Only 14% of Cambodia has access to clean water leading to disease (63% of Cambodians have TB, in the developed world, about 1-2% have it).
The most frustrating thing about all of this and the underlying reason for dispair is the corruption. Cambodia has been given quite a bit of money from the international community and it appears that the money is being embezzled. There was a report done a couple of years ago that indicated that the gvt embezzles abut 500 million dollars a year which is half of the budget of the entire country. The corruption runs through every sector of society making it hard to fight... in the education system teachers make the kids pay to attend school even though it is supposed to be free...poor kids can't go because they can't pay the bribes. Students then cheat their way through school by paying their teachers and buying answers... most of the teachers don't have over a second grade education themselves so the education system struggles to begin with. The healthcare systems consists of Dr's (some of whom have cheated their way through school) who charge their paitents even though the care is supposed to be free... soooo the poor don't get healthcare. There was a story in one of the books that talks about a poor family going to the hospital to gave a baby, there was a complication and the dr told the husband that he wanted $150 u.s. to save the mom and baby. The husband didn't have that much money so the dr took off his gloves and let the mother and baby die. Donors around the world have given an insane amount if money for healthcare and there's nothing to show for it. The main industries in Cambodia are tourism, rice production and garmet industry. The rice industry suffers because the people are basically using the same techniques that were used over one thousand years ago... a blade and an ox. Most don't have irrigation systems so while their neighbors (vietnam and thailand) are able to produce 3-4 rice crops in one year... the cambodias only produce one...when there isn't a drought that is. Even when they get a good crop, they are only able to sell it within Southeast Asia because they don't have rice mills that make rice that the developed nations are willing to buy. It really is the most depressing situation imaginable. When Cambodia is compared to many of the countries that we consider to be in trouble... Cambodia seems to come out on bottom. Haiti is considered to be one of the poorest nations in world but on a lot of counts Cambodians are worse off... in Haiti, 29% of kids under the age of 5 have stunted growth from malnutrition, in Cambodia the percentage is 42%. The statistics that I have read and the personal stories of the people here are staggering. As a tourist you don't even know what to do with it all. As we walked through the killing fields children from the surrounding area came to beg... the tour books warn not to give to begging children because there are gangs who kidnap these kids, force them to beg and then take the money that they collect... giving the kids money only funds the gang. But I hate looking into their sad eyes and doing nothing...
One of the U.S. ambassadors to Cambodia, Joseph Mussomeli, was quoted to have warned people, "Be careful because Cambodia is the most dangerous place you will ever visit. You will fall in love with it, and eventually it will break your heart." I believe it, there is something about this place that draws you in and beaks you down at the same time. When you hear the history, your heart breaks. When you read about the current politics you become furious. When you read about some of the social issues, you feel scared. It's a place that you don't even know where to begin. God heal Cambodia and give the rest of the world wisdom on how to do our part.
Books about Cambodia:
Cambodias Curse (explains current situation)
When Broken Glass Floats (about Khmer Rouge era)
First They Killed My Father (Khmer Rouge era)
The Road of Lost Innocence (current sex trafficking)
