Today, on our first day in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, we visited a set of buildings--a former public school--used as jail/torture station by the Khmer Rouge, a communist revolutionary movement, led by Pol Pot, during the 1970's. This is an important first-stop for any new visitor to Cambodia as it helps put real context around the recent history of the Cambodian people.
The photo to the left shows the Team starting our tour with a guide. As she spoke of the 20,000+ people who went through this one facility where we stood, she also wove in her own story. Her own father, daughter, two siblings, two son-in-laws, and other cousins were murdered by Khmer Rouge. She knows where each one died. She, like almost every other Cambodian over the age of 30 who I have asked about the Khmer Rouge, can not hold back the tears whenever they remember.
I know this is rather morbid to read, but please, read on...
We proceeded into room after room formerly used by the Khmer Rouge to torture and kill. Now the rooms are filled with artifacts of that time, including room after room of photos like the above. The Khmer Rouge, like the Nazis before them, were systematic and thorough in their chronicling those who would eventually die at their hands.
And many of the evil men who did these things are still free, unconvicted or even tried for their crimes and living in Cambodia. But there has been some recent news about one of them.
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