The Killing Fields

The drab building is a former secondary school that was converted to a Khmer Rouge torture chamber one stop away from a killing field. Why is it necessary to post a sign telling visitors not to laugh? The nearest killing field (for there were many) is easy to miss--the sign identifying it is not quite on the roadway, and the street leading to it  passes what seem to be houses and small businesses. It's a former Chinese cemetary in what might be called suburbs of Phnom Penh.

The sign to the killing field competes with other signs for the driver's attention.

Forgive me, but it's almost just another roadside attraction, a "must see" location if you are in town. It is surreal -- as emotionally remote as the human sacrifice pyramids of the Mayans in Mexico. We know it happened, but it seems so long ago....

The government fisheries employee who accompanied us to the cemetary, Lieng Sopha, lost three siblings, but survived the Khmer Rouge because his aunt was able to steal morsels for him to eat, at great risk to her life. He  disclosed to Jay, pictured at left, below, that he has had trouble convincing his children that his personal stories are true. The fact that the children can't imagine what their father went through is a testimony to his perserverence in transcending what he endured, becoming a good father and provider. But the happiness of his children comes at some cost--their difficulty in imagining the genocide.

Lieng Sopha, director of Department of Community Fishery Development, with Jay at genocide site

As Jay and I walked through the killing fields, the unreality of the genocide brought back words from Shakespear's Julius Caesar. The words are spoken by Mark Anthony, who addresses Caesar's body following his assassination. They seem most appropriate here:

O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever livèd in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy—
Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue—
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men.
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.
Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war,
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial. (Act 3, scene 1)

 

Scenes from the Choeung Ek Killing Field (Chinese cemetary)

 

 

 

 

Chao Ponhea Yat High School: Code Name, S-21

Arms tied behind them, prisoners were hoisted by their arms on this gallows.

 

 

The precursor to all of this:

It was United States President Richard Nixon who ordered the carpet bombing of Cambodia to deprive North Vietnam of sanctuaries. This drove Cambodians into the cities. Within a year of Nixon's resignation as a result  of the Watergate Scandal, the Khmer Rouge arrived at Phnom Penh, forcing its total evacuation within three days. President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. Untold numbers of Cambodians suffered and died. And now their memorial is another roadside attraction. Cambodians are  not showing resentment against the United States, as far as I can see, but I think we owe these people.

And so, for Mr. Nixon, this line from Shakespeare:

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas incarnadine,

Making the green one red.

 (Macbeth, Act Act 2, Scene 2.)

This post is dedicated to the survivors--people like Lieng Sopha, shown below with his children.

 

Love,

Robert

Author’s note: This blog is produced independently of Sustainable Communities International. Observations, opinions, errors and omissions are solely the responsibility of the writer.