The Killing Fields, Cambodia

Paddy Rice’s Irish pub, the water front, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

On Friday, we got the 6 hour bus from Saigon to here in Phnom Penh, and the contrast with the 24 hr horror journey from Laos to Hanoi could not have been greater.  Bright sunshine, clean and modern border control and a ferry trip across the Mekong thrown in- all good.

"Ferry... cross the Mekong"

After arriving in the middle of nowhere in the city, being surrounded by hordes of parasitic Tuk-Tuk ‘drivers’, the 4 of us crammed ourselves and our kit into one and got a lift to a hotel (no doubt owned by the driver’s  mother in law or cousin) near the waterfront. 

"Tuk-Tuk!"

After this we then went for some food and beers along the waterfront, and realised that we were once again in the land of the walking ATM’s where all the locals view every single westerner as instant cash.  If I’ve just ordered a round of drinks then mistakenly make eye contact with some idiot out on the pavement, am I really going to want a Tuk-Tuk at that precise moment?  Bunch of clowns.  “You want Tuk-Tuk?”...  “You want nose-bleed?”

In the morning we got up bright and early to go and experience the principle joys of Phnom Penh: the shooting range, and the Killing Fields.  Having fired more different types of weapons, more often than I care to remember, and having spent endless hours of my life cleaning them, generally the novelty of ‘shooting guns’ has long worn off.  However when I had a couple of Aussie lads, and a couple of birds, wanting to do it I couldn’t exactly resist the opportunity to put the uppity colonials in their place!  Unfortunately, the trip started badly as our 2 Tuk-Tuk drivers drove off in opposite directions.  Although ours assured us that we were going to the same place, just by a shorter route, once we arrived he’d forgotten how to speak English and just looked blankly at us and we realised we wouldn’t see the others any time soon. 

Unsurprisingly, the range itself would have given the ‘pamphlet-head’ geeks of the Small Arms School Corps, who oversee all our weapons training and range work, complete coronary failure.  There was a pile of loaded weapons on the floor or hanging on the wall and while it wasn’t surprising that there were plenty of Eastern Block weapons (as everywhere in the 3^rd world), I’d be interested to know how they’d got hold of both a ‘Gimpy’ Machine Gun, which we use, and a French FA MAS rifle, which came into service about 30 yrs after Dien Bien Phu.  There was a menu of options to choose from with their prices, ranging from a 30 round M-16 or AK mag for $40 to an RPG (shoulder-mounted Rocket Propelled Grenade) for $350.  Fun for all the family.

I went up first into the indoor 25m range with an AK (the AK-47 is one of many widely available AK variants and as I can’t tell most of them apart I somehow doubt the media, who confidently identify it everywhere, can either).  Since before Iraq in ’04 I’d handled the AK a few times as it’s generally accepted that if we need to ‘slot’ someone he (or she) will be carrying one, and we may have to remove it and clear it, ideally without shooting our own feet off.  Last year in Afghan was the first chance I’d had to actually fire it and it is quite good fun, for want of a better word, hence why I was quite happy to have another go- I guess I haven’t entirely grown out of it...

Firing AK

After I’d used up my $40 I was then wincing as the local, who may or may not have been a serving Cambodian soldier, attempted to teach my mates how to operate the AK and M-16.  He was quite relieved when I just took over from him, and played the role of Skill At Arms instructor.  I will never, ever be the tool who takes over at a barbecue or with DIY to show off ‘Alpha Male’ qualities because I really don’t need to and lawyers or accountants need the opportunity more.  However, there are times when you’ve just got to take over.  After some brief instruction and guidance, my fellow travellers then really enjoyed their first experiences of shooting, including on ‘automatic’ (only 2-3 round bursts, no ‘Baghdad Unloads’) and were buzzing afterwards- there were no fatalities or Gun Shot Wounds!  

Chicks with guns...

The next part of the Cambodian experience, however, definitely brought the mood down to earth as we headed out to the killing fields.  At Choeung Ek  some of the 2 million people, of a population of 8 million, killed during the regime of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge in the 70’s were buried.  Here people were brought out from the S-21 prison and were dumped in mass graves after being killed in a variety of methods- shooting was avoided in order to preserve ammunition.  The most graphically described method was the way used to kill babies who were seen as potential threats to the regime as they may grow up wanting to seek revenge for their murdered parents.  The babies were held by their feet and had their heads smashed off a tree.

Some of the skulls that have been excavated at Choeung Ek

Memorial at the 'Killing Fields'.

Knowing exactly what the Taliban and their Al Queda mates get up to, given half a chance, nothing evil that human beings do to each other surprises me anymore.  The thing about Cambodia is the sheer scale of killing 25% of the national population, and the sheer pointlessness of it- not that Islam is any justification, but there is a perverse logic to those boys’ ‘death cult’ mentality.

Sihanouk, the post colonial ruler of Cambodia in the 60’s was seen as being pro- North Vietnam, although he claimed neutrality, and was opposed by the Americans.  While he was visiting China in 1970 he was ousted in an American backed coup.  This lead to the Viet Cong and their Cambodian equivalent the Khmer Rouge, to attempt to retake control.  The Khmer Rouge ended up taking control of Phnom Penh in April 1975, a couple of weeks before the fall of Saigon.

Immediately, the country was renamed ‘Democratic Kampuchea’ and Pol Pot the Khmer Rouge leader set about achieving his stated aim of of turning the country into an 11^th century agricultural economy.  People living in cities were forced to walk out into the countryside to work in rice paddies.  All elements of Western life, including hospitals, were destroyed along with all evidence of religion, including Buddhist, Catholic and the Cham Muslims.  Minority Chinese and Vietnamese, as well as evidence of contact with the previous regime or with foreign nationals were all regarded as a threat.  People were encouraged to confess and ‘wipe the slate clean’- before being taken away and executed.

An academic background or an ability to speak a foreign language was seen as a threat, and a guaranteed execution.  The fact that Pol Pot himself had studied Marxism in Paris showed a level of hypocrisy which Blair/ Mandelson/ Campbell types can only look on at in bewildered awe.

Ultimately, the Khmer Rouge bloodbath ended in 1978 when the Vietnamese, who were not exactly regarded as liberators in Saigon 3 yrs earlier, invaded and took over.  Civil war and internal turmoil carried on until 1991, when peace was agreed and the monarchy was restored in 1993.  Apart from a brief attempted coup in 1997 there has been peace ever since.

Anyway after our little trip around Choeung Ek, we had the opportunity to go to visit S-21 prison, but the general feeling was that we were all a bit ‘Genocided Out’ by then, so we headed back into town.  I found it strange that my friends then professed a feeling of guilt about the fact they’d enjoyed ‘playing with guns’ immediately before.  I did try to explain the fact that the only way evil is prevented in the world is by “Rough men standing ready in the night... etc”, but they weren’t entirely convinced.

Anyway, after a couple more days in Phnom Penh our party has dispersed around Cambodia, although I think I’m just going to fly to Kuala Lumpa in the next couple of days, Inshallah...