"THE DEAD ARE SILENT"

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

Temperature: 34 Degrees Celsius

Track of the day: Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin

"I love swimming in the morning," Alecs says diving under the water of our private pool, "it's just such a great start to the day." After a refreshing swim in the pool, we hail a tuk-tuk to take

us to the Toul Sleng Prison (aka S21) and the killing fields. Between 1975 and 1979 one fifth of Cambodia's population (1.7 million people) was wiped out by the Khmer Rouge, led by a man named Pol Pot. He and his party performed one of the most radical restructuring of a society ever attempted. On April 17, 1975 Khmer Rouge evacuated with force the entire city of Phnom Penh to the countryside leaving behind a ghost town where only the bodies of those who fought back remained. Men, women, children and even wounded and sick hospital patients marched into the jungle with everything they could carry, unsure where they were going or even why. The 'city people' were forced into work camps with the 'country people' who were deemed less corrupt and therefore treated much better. All Cambodians were forced to wear black clothing with hair cut the same length and almost all families were separated. Children controlled adults and anyone perceived as 

educated was exterminated without question. Doctors were killed meaning uneducated villagers were providing medical treatment with little training and without proper tools or medicines. Two cups of watered-down rice fed entire villages and receiving meat was a rare occurrence. While working in the fields many villagers would catch live frogs, crickets, spiders and lizards shoving them in their mouths while the Angkar's head was turned, desperately trying to survive. Death by starvation, treatable disease, overworking and execution were a daily occurrence and family members began dropping like flies. Fearing a revolt amongst the people, Khmer Rouge rounded up suspect infiltrators who they accused of simultaneously working for the KGB, CIA and the Vietnamese. These people were taken to Toul Sleng (aka S-21), a former high school turned prison led by Saloth Sar and under the direction of Kaing Gek Iev (alias Duch), where Alecs and

I now stand. The prison walls are lined with electrified barbed wire while the old buildings inside seem barren. "Let's start with building A," I suggest, reading from a $3 guide we purchased. I follow Alecs into a large empty room with concrete walls and barred windows. The floor is dusty and tiled. In the centre of the room sits a single bed where a metal rod with shackles is chained to one post. A filthy watering can and former rusty ammunition box lay to the side of the bed - the place where prisoners disposed of their body waste. When the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979 (causing the Khmer Rouge to fall) guards were ordered to kill the remaining prisoners in S-21. 14 people were brutally killed and their bodies left to rot before the Khmer Rouge abandoned the prison. When the United Front for the National Salvation of Kampuchea found the corpses, they photographed them as they were, before burying them in-front of what is now building A. In each room hangs a single photo of one of the last 14 victims, their limp bodies tortured beyond recognition, left in pools

of their own blood. Alecs and I stand side by side unable to verbalize our thoughts and emotions but Alecs' saddened eyes speak for both of us. 

This building contained large cells for prisoners deemed to be holding valuable information, while other prisoners were herded into tiny brick cells that both Alecs and I barely fit inside. Outside building B hangs a pole with cables attached where interrogators would hang prisoners upside down until they passed out. They would then dip their heads in a jar of smelly, filthy water used for fertilizer so they would quickly regain consciousness to further their interrogation. We step inside one of the dimly lit rooms in building B where we find thousands of photographs of the victims who passed through the prison. Every photo tells a story - fear, anger and sadness are emotions seen vividly in the eyes of these people, "I know these people," Alecs says looking at a group of photos, "they look like my family, they look like the people we've met here." I nod my head pointing out to Alecs a photo of a young man who looks like his brother. "He has Jay's eyes," Alecs says looking closer at the photo, "that man probably is someones brother." The Khmer Rouge believed that like when pulling weeds it is necessary to pull up a traitors roots - killing his entire family. One forced confession meant several would die. A photo of a 

Khmer woman holding her baby, her face almost lifeless, will remain with me forever. Tens of thousands of people passed through these walls and only seven survived. These people survived because of their unique skills as either carpenters, electrical engineers, sculptors and even painters. Paintings by one of the survivors hang on the walls depicting life inside the prison. Beside a bed with shackles used for torturing victims hangs a painting of a female victim having her nipples clipped off with pliers. Beside the bed stands a box where venomous scorpions and centipedes were housed to further pain inflicted on these people. Other methods of torture included pulling fingernails off and pouring alcohol to the wound or taking babied from mothers and smashing their little heads 

against a wall to gain information. Outside the building hangs a sign with rules for prisoners to follow when being tortured - 'Rule #6 - When getting lashed or electrification you must not cry at all'. It almost becomes too much to bare and then we see the photos of the victims who did not survive torture. Lifeless bodies drained of all their fluids lay on the various torture devices, their faces indiscernible amongst the many wounds. Their skin is stretched across their hollow naked frames and their eyes sunken in, they seem almost inhuman. "It's not fair," Alecs says, "these people will never have justice for what was done to them." None of the Khmer Rouge involved in S-21 prison have ever been prosecuted for the crimes they committed, in fact no-one has ever been sentenced for any of the horrors committed during the Pol Pot Regime. Duch, the prison director - a man said to be a 

a ruthless killer - now awaits trial for his crimes, a privilege none of his victims ever received. Photos of the young prison soldiers, some no more than 14 years old hang beside the faces of their victims. Can we blame these children for wanting, like everyone else, to simply live through another day?, I ask myself.  This is a question many Cambodians still ask and it has Alecs and I questioning our own moral code. There was a saying during the the reign of Pol Pot that says it is better to kill 10 innocent people than to leave one guilty person alive. It is for this reason people were brought to the prison on the most absurd charges and a forced confession was always eventually given. Once a prisoner confessed they were unknowingly marked for execution and taken to Choeung Ek, better known as the killing fields, some 20 km SW of the prison. A short tuk-tuk ride through the busy streets of

Phnom Penh has us at the gates of the former orchard. A Japanese company owns the rights to the ticketing of the killing fields, reaping the profit from another nations suffering. "That's absurd," I say, walking through the gates, "the money should go back to Cambodia." We walk along a dirt path where blindfolded prisoners, tied to one another were dragged to large pits. They were forced to kneel beside the pit and in order to save ammunition one sharp blow was applied to the back of the head using an axe, shovel or bamboo stump. Another soldier would then slit their throats leaving them heaped upon each other, some dead, some still dying. Each one of these people died afraid and alone, their families will never see them again and they will always carry a heavy heart. We stop at a tree 

where soldiers smashed in the heads of babies and children. Teeth, fragments of bones and torn bits of clothing still litter the dirt floor and Alecs and I stop at a bench to reflect on what we've seen. "It's hard to believe this actually happened here," Alecs says as we listen to birds chirping in the distance. "We can only hear the sounds of nature now. The dead are silent," he adds.  Our last stop on a day of grim reflection and education is a large tower in the centre of the killing fields. This tower holds thousands upon thousands of skulls, bones and pieces of clothing from the victims killed here. Hundreds of skulls sit at eye level and I have to remind myself each one has a life, each one a story different from the next. We remain silent during the ride back reflecting about a life we will never know and a life those people will never have.

For many Cambodians the war is not yet over, as recently as 1994 bombings occurred in Phnom Penh and many Khmer Rouge hold positions of power within a corrupt government. Trials are finally underway for the higher ranking Khmer Rouge officials. However, for most people this will not ease their pain. For those who lost loved one the pain will never heal and they will never forget.

So long for now,

Alecs and Meg in Phnom Penh