C & C globetrotting around the world…

We arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia with a population of over 2 million people  and founded in 1434. Once known as the “Pearl of Asia”, it was considered one of the loveliest French-built cities in Indochina in the 1920s. We visited Paulo from our Amsterdam times who has recently moved here and it was nice to see each other after 6 years. We also met his flat mates doing internships for various NGOs in the city and went out on the town so they showed us what the nightlife is all about. Phnom Penh has many renovated colonial buildings, huge amounts of SUVs and lots of expensive restaurants and bars, but this is worlds away from the struggle faced by most residents.

Our visit in Phnom Penh coincided with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) trial hearings. The ECCC is a special court set up in Cambodia with the help of the UN to judge some leaders of the Khmer Rouge for the crimes they committed between 1975 and 1979. The Khmer Rouge was a revolutionary movement which ascended to power while Cambodia was weakened by the bombings and fighting of the second Indochina war. We think the expression Second Indochina War fits better as the Vietnam War next door affected both Cambodia and Laos, as the Viet Cong seeked refuge in the neighbouring countries and the Americans bombed these areas as well. Upon taking Phnom Penh on April 17^th 1975, the Khmer Rouge implemented a radical and brutal restructuring of society. Its goal was to transform Cambodia (renamed Democratic Kampuchea) into a peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. To do so, the city populations were evacuated to the country-side to work as slaves. Intellectuals (or anyone speaking a foreign language or people wearing glasses) were systematically wiped out. The leader of the Khmer Rouge was known as Pol Pot and under his rule around 2 million people died ( 1/4 of the population), either of hunger, overworking, torture or murdered by his men. The Khmer Rouge rule was brought to an end by the Vietnamese who liberated the population on January 7^th 1979. Because the cold war was still going on, Pol Pot’s regime was allowed to retain the seat of Democratic Kampuchea to the UN on the premise that it was a legitimate Cambodian government in contrast to the Vietnamese installed and controlled (and Soviet backed) People’s Republic of Kampuchea regime. After the Vietnamese invasion, the Khmer Rouge retreated to an area near the Thai border where they could rebuild their military with the help from the West and China. After the fall of communism the Russian stopped their financial aid to Vietnam which forced them to end their operations in Cambodia. The haphazard efforts towards conciliation in Cambodia culminated in the Paris Agreements in 1991, in which United Nations-sponsored free and fair elections were scheduled for 1993. As a result the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was established at the end of February 1992 in order to supervise the cease-fire and the ensuing general election. Pol Pot himself has died in 1998 and in December 1999 the remaining leaders surrendered, and the Khmer Rouge effectively ceased to exist.

After all these years, currently 4 important leaders operating under Pol Pot are being tried by the ECCC. The trial is open to the public and we attended one session as well. Although the accused are around 80-90 years old, people hope that they will be punished for their crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity, etc). The trial was very interesting and we saw Nung Chea, who was Pol Pot’s right hand, testify.

After lunch with our tuk-tuk driver, we went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Tuol Sleng, originally a school, was a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime, also known as S21 and the place where 20,000 people had been held and tortured before being killed during the 4 years. On July 26, 2010, Kaing Guek Eav “Duch” was convicted and sentenced to 35 years by the ECCC. As the head of the government’s internal security branch, he oversaw the Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp. Only 7 prisoners survived this terrible prison.

We also went to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, where the detainees of the S21 prison were executed. At the height of the regime, 100 people were being killed a day. Prisoners were brutally bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting bullets before being thrown into mass graves. It was a very moving experience going through the Killing Fields and listening to explanations and recorded testimonies. The grounds are now peaceful, but pieces of bones and clothes protruding from the ground remind of the cruelty that happened here not so long ago. There is also a memorial stupa displaying over 8,000 skulls of victims unearthed here. The tragedy of the massacre the Khmer Rouge perpetrated is unimaginable, killing a quarter of Cambodia’s population, and destroying their culture and institutions.

Back in the city, we stopped at Wat Phnom (meaning Hill Temple) that gave the city its name. It is a quiet, shady and incense-infused temple atop a 27m-high mound. Legend has it that lady Penh first built a temple here in 1373 to house 4 Buddha statues she had found floating in the Mekong river. For lunch we went to “Friend Restaurant”, for its delicious food, but also because it helps former street kids get into the hospitality business. There are many NGOs and other organizations helping orphanages and street children getting a second start. One has to know that about one third of Cambodia’s budget comes from international aid with Japan being the biggest donor. This is also the reason why there are so many NGOs and expats. The financial crisis had also one good side effect. There are less “tree-huggers” and long haired people that want to “give back” spending dollars as if there is no tomorrow. Today a lot of these projects have to get a real business plan to get approved and show that they will be self-sufficient after a certain period. In the end many donors have learned that the goal of an NGO is to become dispensable and not indispensable. Afterwards we went to the National Museum, which is housed in a beautiful red building. It has masterful Khmer artwork, as well as the world’s finest collection of Angkor-era sculpture. The Royal Palace and its surrounding buildings all have classic Khmer roofs and ornate gilding, and are nicely located in lush gardens close to the riverfront where the Mekong and the Tonle Sap rivers meet. The actual Royal Residence is closed to the public since the King lives there, but we visited the Throne Hall and the Silver Pagoda. The Silver Pagoda is so named because it’s floored with 5,000 silver tiles weighing 1kg each. It is also known as the Pagoda of the Emerald Buddha thanks to a Buddha statue made of Baccarat crystal inside. There is also a life-size gold Buddha decorated with 9,584 diamonds. The garden has many other stupa-shaped memorials dedicated to deceased ancestors of the royal family, as well as a miniature of Angkor Wat.

Overall our stay in Phnom Penh was really nice, meeting Paulo and also learning more about Cambodia’s recent history.