Montag, 6. August 2007

Phnom Phenh



Here's an unfair picture of Phnom Penh that shows Cambodia's Capital from a not such a pretty side. But walking through the city you will find many houses and old french style villas that have obviously been burned down after the entire city has been "evacuated" by the Pol Pot Regime, starting a genocide which killed one third of Cambodias population in just three years.

So the most impressive sites in PP are not exactly uplifting. During these years a School, "Tuol Sleng" that was transformed into a prison, and a former teacher from the same school became the prison's director. After this career leap, he took took acribic track of over 15 000 prisoners and made sure that they were efficiently tortured and exterminated on the killing fields. Most of them were killed with shovels, small children and babies were hit against a tree. Today only 3 people are known survivors.



But now comes the most amazing fact: almost no one of the members of Pol Pot's Regime has been inprisoned. One of the ministers of Pol Pot is today Minister in the current government of Cambodia. And of course almost all former khmer rouge soldiers live among the people. Now: Does it surprise us that it is not allowed to teach about Pol Pot in Cambodias public schools??

3 Kommentare:

Diane hat gesagt…

Hey just the other day one of Pol Potts men was put away. Took them thirty years to get him though.

Anonym hat gesagt…

3 years to kill 3 000 000 victims.
30 years to convict a handful culprits.

... that is definately not a good resume...

davidmaas hat gesagt…

Germany has a lot to offer in way of dealing with one's history. Look at how long it took for an American president to apologize to native Americans. And Japan still has never come out and acknowledged war crimes.
Pol Pot is particularly shocking because its so recent, so brutal.