Friday, January 28, 2011
1975-1979. The years of blood
I wasn't really fully prepared for the horrors of the Pol Pot's S21 torture chambers, nor was I in anyway prepared for what we were about to see at the Killing Fields. Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge killed nearly 2 million men, women, children and babies during these four years. At that time that was 1/4 of the countries population, and included 99% of all educated people. At the memorial in Choeung Ek the human skulls are stacked 10 stories high and the skeletal remains of thousands still remain in the fields and in shallow graves. Pol Pot's idea was to turn back the country to Year 0 and start again, and anyone that stood in his way or was even slightly suspected of doing so was murdered in cold blood, usually with a blow to the head by a farming impliment. Just wearing glasses was enough for a person to be killed as they were perceived as a threat as they may have had some form of education.This poverty stricken little country has been trying to recover ever since. Entire generations were wiped out and this is the reason that 50% of the population today are 16 years old or under.
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