Pol Pot Journals: August 2006

The end of reason

From my new book, The Pol Pot Journals:

"Yes Ive had a bum rap in the last few years. I killed a few too many people. I disrupted some lives and made some serious mistakes. But on the other hand, when the powers to be try to censure you and close down your voice, you must have done something right. That means not everything I did was bad.

The imperialist powers have always needed scapegoats, scary monsters and super creeps to divert attention from their own crimes.

When men who are the moral equivalence of drunken prostitutes and they pretend to be our leaders and moral guidance, then there is no morality, there is no sin. There is only the law of the jungle.

That is the reality of today."

ដំណាក់កាលប្រវត្តិសាស្ត្រ

ឆ្នាំ1967: លោកខៀវ សំផន និងលោក ហូយន់ បានបង្កើតចលនាក្រុមឧទ្ទាមទ័ពព្រៃ ប្រឆាំងរដ្ឋាភិបាលទៀត។

ឆ្នាំ1970: ថ្ងៃ18 មិនា ជាថ្ងៃដែលលោកលន់ ណុល ធ្វើរដ្ឋប្រហារទំលាក់ សម្តេចព្រះនរោត្តសីហនុចេញពីអំណាច ជាហេតុធ្វើអោយមានការប្រយុទ្ធគ្នា នៅភូមិភាគឥណ្ឌូចិនទាំងមូល រវាងកងទ័ពថ្មើរជើងសហរដ្ឋអាមេរិក-វៀតណាម នៅក្នុងសង្រ្គាមស៊ីវិលនេះ។

ឆ្នាំ1970: ថ្ងៃ04 ឧសភា សម្េតចព្រះនរោត្តមសីហនុ បានបង្កើតរាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលរួបរួមជាតិ ឬសហភាពកម្ពុជា។

ឆ្នាំ1975: ថ្ងៃ17 មេសា ជាថ្ងៃជ័យជំនះរបស់ខ្មែរក្រហម ដែលដឹកនាំដោយប៉ុលពត។ ដោយបង្កើត របបកម្ពុជាប្រជាធិបតេយ្យខ្មែរ។ ប៉ុលពត បានទំលាក់ លោកលន់ ណុល ចេញពីអំណាច និងបានដណ្តើមកាន់កាប់យក ទីក្រុងភ្នំពេញ ដោយជំលៀសប្រជាជនទាំងអស់ ចេញពីទីក្រុងភ្នំពេញ។

Atrocity theme park? Cambodia's "genocide trail" attracting tourists -- and criticism

By DENIS D. GRAY
Associated Press Writer

ANLONG VENG, Cambodia -- Call it crass, macabre or educational, but Pol Pot's shabby grave and a towering stack of his victims' skulls are drawing a growing number of visitors to Cambodia's genocide trail.

These and other relics of the Khmer Rouge reign of terror are the grim counterpoint to Angkor Wat, Cambodia's world-famous ancient temple. Some decry it as "dark tourism" and "a Khmer Rouge theme park," while officials and private entrepreneurs argue that it will reap tourist dollars for an impoverished nation.

The latest station on the circuit is Anlong Veng, the final stronghold of the Khmer Rouge and its leader, Pol Pot, who turned the country into a vast slave labor camp in which as many as 2 million of their fellow Cambodians perished from disease, starvation and relentless executions in the mid-1970s.

"Cambodia is known to the world for two things -- Angkor Wat and the 'killing fields.' Some believe one came from God and the other from hell," says Youk Chhang, a leading researcher of Khmer Rouge atrocities.

This scruffy town in northwest Cambodia once housed one of the 20th century's largest assemblages of mass killers. Now, following up on a government order to preserve Khmer Rouge sites, officials are planning to restore nearly 40 houses of former Khmer Rouge leaders and build a museum where the guides are ex-soldiers of the ultra-communist movement.

"Pol Pot was cremated here. Please help to preserve this historical site," says a Ministry of Tourism sign next to a dirt mound bordered by half-buried soda bottles and protected by a rusting iron roof. The hut where Pol Pot died in 1998, the movement collapsing around him, has disappeared.

Thirty meters away, bulldozers are laying the foundations for a South Korean-built resort with swimming pool. And just down the road, a casino and massive market will cater to visitors from neighboring Thailand.

Youk Chhang, who heads The Documentation Center of Cambodia, is concerned that sites such as Anlong Veng will lose their raw, powerful authenticity.

"We don't want them turned into Disneylands and seen merely as a source of money," he says.

A private Japanese enterprise, JC Royal Co., last year won the concession to develop Choeung Ek, the vast killing ground, into a more tourist-friendly place, while the World Bank is completing a wide, paved road to speed tourist buses to the site 17 kilometers (10 miles) south of Phnom Penh.

At Tuol Sleng, the notorious torture and interrogation center in the capital, some of the desperate prisoner graffiti has been painted over and Youk Chhang had to dissuade the director from giving all the starkly drab buildings a whitewash. He said the director told him: "Don't worry, brother, they will look old again after two or three years."

A harsh critic is former King Norodom Sihanouk who last month objected to genocide memorials which displayed victims' skulls and bones, saying this was done "for the pleasure of tourists." He said it did nothing for the "wandering souls" of those killed and urged that their bones be cremated according to Buddhist custom.

Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek, which charge a US$2 entry fee, are on the itineraries of almost every tour company and are expected to be visited by many of the 1.6 million foreign tourists expected in Cambodia this year. Even more interest may be generated next year when the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders go on trial for genocidal crimes before a long-delayed, U.N.-backed tribunal.

Youk Chhang's U.S.-funded center, which is delivering boxes of documents on Khmer Rouge atrocities to the tribunal, plans a museum. One of its staffers, Sayana Ser, has toured Nazi concentration camps, other Holocaust sites and Berlin's Jewish Museum while attending a graduate program at Wageningen University in The Netherlands.

Roberto Rossano, a 22-year-old Londoner, said he knew little about the Khmer Rouge nightmare until he visited Choeung Ek.

"When somebody tells you one or two million were killed it's just a number, but when I came and saw just a fraction of what they did -- these skulls -- it absolutely shocks you," he said.

He and a friend had just seen the soaring stupa, or Buddhist reliquary, crammed with 8,985 skulls, some bearing clear evidence of death by hammers, hoes, bamboo sticks and bullets. Skeletal remains and ragged clothes lay in surrounding shallow graves. A sign next to a tree explained how executioners bashed the heads of children against its trunk.

The victims were bused in from Tuol Sleng, a former high school where up to 16,000 suffered torture and abysmal living conditions before being "smashed." Also on display are instruments of torture and scores of haunting photographs of those about to die, taken by their captors.

In the bougainvillea-shaded courtyard are tombs of 14 prisoners killed just before Vietnamese troops captured Phnom Penh in 1979, driving the Khmer Rouge into the jungles to fight as guerrillas and eventually to be squeezed into enclaves like Anlong Veng.

Anlong Veng, only recently cleared of mines, is perhaps the only "living museum" of the horror. Many of its 26,000 inhabitants are Pol Pot's former fighters and officials, some of them missing limbs.

Ta Mok, a brutal military commander, lived here until his death last month. Although he was to have stood trial for atrocities, he was a hero in Anlong Veng, and people eagerly point out his humanitarian legacy -- schools, clinics, a dam, a sawmill that provided free wood to the poor.

"The people all love Ta Mok," says his nephew, Cheam Ponlok.

The commander whom the Western media dubbed "the Butcher" was seen off by hundreds of mourners and chanting Buddhist monks, and his ashes placed in a tomb in a temple _ the newest addition to Cambodia's genocide trail.

Kent State – The war came to the streets of the US

From The Pol Pot Journals:

By April 1970, the US had launched an all out invasion of Cambodia with 30,000 US troops and 40,000 South Vietnamese troops. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong moved west to avoid the troops.
Meanwhile, back home the press found out about the invasion and campus demonstrations erupted all over U.S. universities.
At Kent State University in Ohio protest of the bombing of Cambodia, just as many others. But Governor James Rhodes sent in the National Guard. Some rocks were thrown, some windows were broken, and an attempt was made to burn the ROTC building.
The units that responded were ill-trained and came right from riot duty elsewhere; they hadn't had much sleep. The first day, there was some brutality; the Guard bayoneted two men, one a disabled veteran, who had cursed or yelled at them from cars. The following day, May 4th, the Guard, commanded with an amazing lack of military judgment, marched down a hill, to a field in the middle of angry demonstrators, then back up again. Seconds before they would have passed around the corner of a large building, and out of sight of the crowd, many of the Guardsmen wheeled and fired directly into the students, hitting thirteen, killing four of them, pulling the trigger over and over, for thirteen seconds.
As four student lay dead, others approached in shock. They were horrified that they had been fired on. They were also stunned. None of us can forget that press picture of a woman kneeling over her dead boyfriend as he bleed to death.

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,We're finally on our own.This summer I hear the drumming,Four dead in Ohio.
- Neil Young
“Ohio”
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Nixon and many of his supporters acted with indifference or even delight that this massacre had happened. They felt the students deserved it. The country was divided now more than ever and it was not just the Vietnam war anymore, it had moved over to Cambodia and that involvement was about to increase.