Memorial of Genocide

Background: In 1975 Pol Pot and the communist party Khmer Rouge came to power. The face they put on for the world was one of an ideal communist society, but the truth behind the mask was one of terror, mistrust, and murder. For four years, Cambodia endured and struggled for survival. Help came in the form of an invasion by the Vietnamese army, and the world was made aware of the millions of deaths that had been ignored, denied, or unheard. It is estimated that approximately 2 million people died directly from the genocide and another million died from the forced famine. The world had seen genocide before but not one committed against a group's own people group. This is thirty years later....

On Tuesday, my second day here, we visited Tuol Sleng or S-21. This was a high school that the Khmer Rouge used as a torture center where people accused of committing crimes against the party would be taken before they were executed. Only 7 out of 17,000-20,000 people survived. The compound is surrounded by the city but isolated from its rhythm of life. They stand silent, but you can almost hear the despair when you look at the fences put up around the balconies to prevent people from committing suicide in order to escape the horror, when you see a tear running down the woman's cheek in a picture taken of her at the beginning of her confinement, when you read the list of rules for the prisoners which if violated resulted in death, when you look at cells 2 1/2 x 4 feet that housed two people, when you see the instruments of torture on display. Voices were silenced.

Our tour guide was very young at the time. She survived by fleeing to Vietnam with her mother and a sister. Her father, brother, and a sister did not survive. It was good to hear her story and some of the facts of the genocide from her. She was calm but there was a degree of despair. (How many times had she given this tour and had to remember what happened to her people and family?) Why did this happen? Why did other countries (US, China, Thailand) further it instead of stopping it? Why were so many of the Khmer Rouge allowed to go free?

The genocide silenced so many voices. What is the voice of Cambodia saying now? Will it be as silent as the buildings of S-21? Will it ever be heard with richness and fullness? The reality of genocide is hard to comprehend but it forms the backdrop of the mentality here. This is a country struggling to gain its footing after so much has been lost. This is Cambodia.