Jocelynn's entry on S-21& The Killing Fields

Skulls from the Killing Fields

Hey there! This is Jocelynn reporting about the S21 prison and the killing fields.It’s extremely depressing but it really helped me better understand the peopleand culture in general. In regards to the history of Cambodia, I had no ideaabout but it’s just as terrible as what the Nazis did. What is sad is that Americans know nothing about it.

PolPot came into power in the 1970’s and wanted a pure people. Sound familiar? Hewanted just a lower working class that could be easily controlled and verystupid. He went through and killed anyone that he thought might be smart enoughto oppose him: anyone who had glasses,could speak another language, monks, could read, wassmart, or had any form of education. This seemed kind of counter-productive forthe growth of the country but I guess he was only thinking about power. Botevy's father told her family to act crazy before he was killed. Her mother did such a good job of it over the next four years to spare her life--that she even had her children convinced. Pol Pot had the family members of those in the military killed, so that truly is the only thing that kept her alive. The family members were all immediately separated and sent to different camps--so they would have no one to bond with and have no idea who was alive or who was dead.

Pol Pot never appeared in public but had total control over the entire country. Hecampaigned in the jungles where the very poor boys lived and had them come assoldiers. He would brainwash them into thinking that the people in the citywere the reason they were poor and that they were the problem. They would takethe boys out of the village and take them to camps to train them and brainwashthem from an early age so that wouldn’t know anything else. Theymarched into Phnom Penh. Everyone wasexcited but they had no idea what was coming. I do know that the country hadhad a lot of bombings from the Americans when they were fighting Vietnam andthere was a lot of damage from that. So the government told the people thatthey had heard that the US was going to bomb the capital and everyone needed toget out.

This is where Botevy’s story gets mixed with the history. Some people immediately left the country for safety in Vietnam but for most, they didn’trealize what was going on until the border was closed. Pol Pot's soldiers had all of the families leave their homes and come out into the streets. No one knew what was going on. They were all separated and sent to different camps throughout the country. Family members were all torn apart. Within three days, Phnom Penh was a ghost town. No one could talk or they were beaten. I asked Botevy if by being with the same people day in and day out--if they bonded as a group. She said no because you couldn't communicate or you would be killed or beaten. So, they just suffered alone with others surrounding them. I can't imagine the loneliness they must have felt. Especially not knowing what had happened to their families.

Aftera while, all of the cities were cleared out and everyone was put in camps. The entire country was put into camps and itthat short period of 4 years, just over3 million people were killed. For the total population of the country, that was one in every four people. That means that almost every family lost at least one member of their immediate family.

Botevy’s father was a General in the army so he was immediately killed. They took him to a prison similar to the one we went to on Sunday. The one we went to was called S-21.They would take the educated ones and put them in prisons and torture them for information about the ‘enemy’. They would rip their fingernails off,cut off fingers one at a time, hang them with their arms straight behind theirbacks and tie a rope to their wrists and that supported all of their body weight.After hours of hanging they would pass out from pain and exhaustion. They hadpots of strong smelling stuff that was either pesticidesor fertilizer. They would lower their heads into the pots and they would wakeup and they would hang them by their wrists again and again.

They also had the bed looking thing that was filled with water and they would tie their wrist and ankles at the corners and then the rest would be filled with water. After along time, their strength would give out and they would fall into the water and drown because they couldn’t support their bodies any more.

The prison that we went to was actually Botevy’s high school before Pol Pot tookover. Most people weren’t killed there, they were just tortured for information. They would also put acid into their noses or take out their eyes.They raped the women many times at night. Each soldier would beat her till she was unconscious and then she would wake up in another cell or place. They would cut off fingers one by one as they were asking them questions. The Cambodian people were very poor so they didn’t have money for bullets,which would have been a quick death. Most of the deaths were slow and unbearable. Many of those in that prison simply starved to death. Botevy told us that when she got out of the camp she was about 80 pounds and she was my age. She was given onesmall bowl of rice a day for 3 years and something like 8 months and 20 days.She counted exactly how long she was in them. She was woken in the morning at 3:00 am and worked until 8:00 pm in the fields. If they stopped working, they were beaten or killed. If they talked to anyone, they were beaten or killed. If they passed out from exhaustion, they were killled. She started to tell us what sheknew about how her father was tortured and killed but she trailed off and Imost definitely didn’t want to push information out of her. A lot of times withpeople they caught they would kill their family too, just in case.

They didn’t show mercy to babies either. This is what made me cry. They would hold them by their feet and swing them against trees till they died or throw them into their air and shoot them—usually in the mother’s presence. My mind literally can’t comprehend that kind ofcruelty. We saw the rooms where the people were tortured, we saw the cells theylived in. Another cultural difference is that Americans often don’t use graphicpictures to teach the holocaust. At least not nearly as graphic as the ones Isaw. I was literally ready to throw up. They had taken very specific records ofeach person that had died there. All of the pictures were real people that hadfamilies and a life and a job. There was still blood on the floor in lots ofthe cells from people who would commit suicide or were tortured.

Botevycouldn’t go in. She started sobbing. I can’t even begin to imagine the kind ofhorrors that she had to relive today. Of the prison we went to there were 8survivors. But she is seriously my hero. She has been through so much and is sopositive and gives of everything she has to orphans and poor children. One ofthe 8 survivors was actually there selling his book about his experience. I gotmy own copy so I could take it to college with me.

Afterthe prison I really didn’t think it could get much worse. But then we went tothe killing fields. Luckily it wasn’t as graphic because it was all outside andthere weren’t pictures. The killing fields were basically pits thatheld thousands of bodies. It was so beautiful there it was hard to imagine that somuch death occurred there. There were butterflies everywhere. The grass wasgreen and there were trees everywhere. There was a peaceful and beautiful lakethat you could walk around.

This is just one of hundreds of holes in the grounds at the killing fields. They were originally buried, but at their bodies have decayed, it has left indentions in the ground.

Theywould bring a bus full of people every couple hours at the beginning of thekillings and every 15 or so minutes toward the end of Pol Pot’s reign. They haddifferent methods of killing them in different areas of the killing fields.Some they would hit them on the back of the neck with a stick and break theirnecks. Some of them weren’t dead when they were put in the holes but they coveredthe bodies with DDT. It was mostly to get rid of the stink (so those working in the surrounding fields wouldn't know what was going on there) but also to kill offwhat was left. Toward the end they were in a hurry so they didn't do it andthey buried the people alive. One pit was full of naked women who had been rapedto death or raped after they were killed. One was full of babies. We saw thetree and there was hair and bits of cloths on it still. There is a tropicaltree that when you trim down the branches they are really ridged and sharp.They would slice their necks on the branches and throw them in. At the end ofit, the government was getting very paranoid and they started to kill lots oftheir own. If you even insulted another officer you would be dead with yourfamily the next day. They killed foreigners that were visiting Cambodia too.They would beat some to death or use farmer’s tools to murder the people.

Inthe center of the Killing Fields, they have now built a building that had a lot of the skulls from one of the killing fields on 11 different levels going up.You can’t walk inside you can just see the lines of skulls. Each area isseparated by how they were killed and other ways that I can’t remember now. As you walk around, you see clothes in the dirt pretty much everywherefrom the people that died. My mom found a tooth and I found what looked like aforearm bone. Body parts still surface after it rains. This is one of 100’s of killingfields all over Cambodia. This was only about 35 years ago so there is a generation(Botevy’s generation) that is still alive and has had to live with its effects.Most of those in Cambodia today either have immediate family members who were killed during this time or are children of those who were impacted.

As we spent the day with Botevy touring these sites, I can’t believe she would spend the time to take us here, know how hard it had to be for her. There seriously aren’t words to describe thewords of praise and admiration I have for Botevy. She has given up her life andall of her money to help these poor orphans. As yucky as it was to see what wesaw today, I can so much better appreciate these wonderful, loving people of Cambodia!