Killing Fields - Cambodia blog entry #6

Tuesday,September 17, was our trip to hell. The thing is we came back out into theblazing Cambodian heat and rain to live another day. Unlike 2 millionCambodians who didn’t live through the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975 to1979. 

Again,I cannot believe that at the time, my 12-year-old brain only knew of theVietnam War and that when the US pulled out, we gave up on the country and letthe communists have their way. I didn't know that Cambodia had been an innocentvictim of war just because of its location. And there I was, 50 years agothinking only of some 12th century temple in the jungle. 

So,that Tuesday when I was in Cambodia last month, our first stop of the day wasthe Killing Fields, where 8,895 bodieswere discovered after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. It is believed that manymore were buried there as fragments of human bone continue to surface. It isonly one of 300 such mass grave locations throughout Cambodia. 

Thetour of the grounds was chilling, and it wasn’t from the rain showers whichfell on us most of the morning. 

AsI left the main grounds to walk around the pond on the east side of thegrounds, I listened through my headset to stories of survivors and witnesses of these atrocities. The rain fell steadily on the borrowed umbrella I held overmy head. It all felt so very surreal.

Howwas any of this possible? How did Hitler’s Holocaust happen? Or Rwanda or Darfur?How can any human being subject another human being to such absolute and uttercruelty and dehumanization? And how – why is it still going on right now, inthis year, in places around the world? 

Twolast thoughts.

Believeit or not, after sharing all of this, I skipped one thing on the grounds of ChoeungEk. It was even more horrific than any of this. If your curiosity gets thebetter of you, click this link.

Andlastly, we weren’t done for the day. My blog post next week is even moresobering.