PHNOM PENH - AN EDUCATIONAL POST

PHNOM PENH IN BRIEF:
Picturesquely situated at the confluence of three rivers, the city of Phnom Penh radiates out from the small wooded hill from which it was named. The spiritual heart of the city is the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda, and it's adjacent Buddhist monastery. Add to this a treasure trove of colonial-era French architecture and long, wide boulevards, and you have Phnom Penh. All but deserted in 1975, the city has since bounced back from its enforced slumber, gaining in charm and convenience with each passing year.

Following are Lonely Planets descriptions of some of the more powerful and disturbing events of my yesterday:

TUOL SLENG MUSEUM:
In 1975 Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). It soon became the largest center of detention and torture in the country. Between 1975 and 1978 mor ethan 17,000 people held at S-21 were taken to the extermination camp at Choeung Ek, detainees who died during torture were buried in mass graves in the prison grounds.

S-21 has been turned into the TUOL SLENG MUSEUM which serves as a testament to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. Like the Nazi's, the Khmer Rouge was meticulous in keeping records of it's barbarism. Each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed, sometimes before and after torture. The museum displays include room after room of photographs covering the walls from floor to ceiling; virtually all of the men, women, and children depicted were later killed.

As the Khmer Rouge "revolution" reached even greater heights of insanity, it began devouring it's own children. Generations of torturers and executioners who worked here were in turn killed by those who took their places.

When the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in early 1979, it found only 7 prisoners alive at S-21. Fourteen others had been tortured to death just as Vietnamese forces were closing in on the city. Photographs of these gruesome deaths are on display in the rooms where their decomposing corpses were found. The graves of these 14 prisoners are in the center courtyard of S-21.

Altogether, a visit to S-21 is a profoundly depressing experience. The sheer ordinariness of the place makes it even more horrific: the surburban setting, the plain school buildings, the grassy playing area where children kicked around balls, rusted beds, instruments of torture and wall after wall of harrowing black-and-white portraits conjure up images of humanity at its worst. It demonstrates the darkest side of humanity that lurks within us all. Tuol Sleng is not for the squeamish.


THE KILLING FIELDS OF CHOEUNG EK:
Between 1975 and 1978 about 17,000 men, women, children, and infants (including 9 Westerners) who had been detained and tortured at S-21 were transported to the extermination camp of CHOEUNG EK. They were often bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting precious bullets.

The remains of 8985 people, many od whom were bound and blindfolded, were exhumed in 1980 from mass graves in this one-time longan orchard; 43 of the 129 communal graves here have been left untouched. Fragments of human bone and bits of cloth are scattered around the disinterred pits. More than 8,000 skulls, arranged by sex and age, are visible behind the clear glass panels of the Memorial Stupa (a dome-shaped monument, used to house Buddhist relics or to commemorate significant facts of Buddhism) , which was erected in 1988.