Babies drip off every hinge and the hopes of Cambodia's future with them. More than half the population is under the age of 15 years. The Khmer Rouge – under the tyrant Pol Pot's leadership – with their brutal campaign managed to reduce the population of Cambodia from somewhere in the region of 7.3 million people to around 5 million. It is still not clear as to how many people actually died, as mass graves are uncovered around the country. DC-Cam is an NGO body that was set up to deal with the awesome task of documenting the affair.
Cambodian people are warm hearted and know how to enjoy themselves, the food and music culture is one to be admired, from light soupy coconut sauces to deep psychedelia. It is a truly untouched place that needs help. When you talk to Cambodians, they have the attitude of "survivors", not "victims", it is something quite remarkable after everything they have experienced in the not so distant past. A testament that humanity can recover from its ills, and look to the future. This is for Cambodia a country that will welcome you with open arms.
The road out to the killing fields, where thousands were taken from Toul Sleng Prison, many of who were buried alive. Khmer soldiers were beheaded by using the sharp edge of a carved palm – it was slower than dying by sword... A tranquility of natural beauty... who could have known...
Over 9,000 skulls have been recovered from the mass graves...
The mass graves... 86 in total, some of which are up to 5 metres deep. Stories of survivors escaping from the graves exist as they were buried alive. In the 1980s the government had to pay people "good money" to help uncover the graves, said the guide as the smell was so unbearable. Sometimes the lake floods as the Mekong River rises and some of the graves have been destroyed in the process.
The children who live next door...
The road back to town...
A school on the road back to town, no guesses what everyone's favourite subject is...
The tortured...
My guide, Sokha Mom, now in her 40s she is a "survivor" of the killing fields. She recalled working in a camp of 50 children, taken away from her mother and father. Sokha's father was a teacher, most of who were killed under the Khmer Rouge as they lead a campaign to eradicate any intellectual that might be a threat to the regime. She worked in the countryside as all city dwellers were turfed out of Phnom Penh.
Sokha found her mother in 1985 and they returned to the city to search for her siblings – four sisters and one brother. She lost one sister and her father under the regime, from starvation.
Able to trace all her sisters, apart from one. In the early 1990s a monk came bearing a letter. It was from her sister, who had been lucky enough to escape in 1973 to the US, due to the fact that her husband, a soldier in the military, was able to organise a route out of the country by boat.
These days her two children, 14 and 15 years old, live in the US. She misses them terribly but feels she has no choice as they will have ahead start in life.
Sokha told me of how she used to wake up everyday and check that the sun was above her, while showing me the scars on her feet from working in the field. This is not an uncommon story from the people you meet everyday in Cambodia. She shared her lunch with me and we hugged each other before I said goodbye. She cried as she recalled her life story, it is not so long ago that such a brutal force of humanity destroyed the beauty of the country which is today recovering by going through the motions of facing its past – although sometimes confused.
Nobody was immune to the torture that was carried out, even Khmer Soldiers were killed. The smiling face is a result of the photographer or his assistant tickling the young boy for the camera.
Today's beauty and serenity of a Cambodia, which is happy and willing to host a whole world of visitors..
