On 28th March 2014, Evelin Lindner visits the Killings Fields of Siem Reap. Wat Thmey is home to Siem Reap's Killing Fields' memorial. The recording was done by Evelin Lindner. See this article, titled 'Wat Thmey', in Siem Reap Post, 15 Aug 2013: Wat Thmey (or Wat Thmei) is located about 3 km from the centre of Siem Reap along the exit road from Angkor. If you go past the back of the Jayavaraman VII hospital heading out of town, it's on the left. Most tuk tuk drivers and tour guides know it. It is a small active Pagoda, with a not-very-inspiring statue of Buddha. The hall it's in is quite nicely decorated and you could spend a good couple of minutes there looking around. Outside there are the homes for the monks, and a teaching hall, as well as a small gift shop selling tourist tack. So far so ordinary. There's nothing here to make you stay more than a few minutes. However at the side of the Pagoda, is a small, rather gruesome building. Wat Thmey is home to Siem Reap's Killing Fields' memorial. Anyone who comes to Cambodia and knows anything about it's past, will know that since the 1400s it has been a troubled country. First the Thais sacked Angkor in 1432. Then in 1863, at the request of the King in Exile, the French took over. In the 1960s and 70s, Cambodia was subject to violent protests, and civil war. Finally in 1975, the Khmer Rouge took power. They renamed the country Democratic Kampuchea and started clearing people from towns. In a matter of hours, the entire population of Phnom Penh was ordered to leave. Many people died on the road. Everywhere people were put to work. People were killed for the slightest reason -- for being too clever, for refusing to work. wat-thmey(10)Many more died through starvation, illness and the brutality that followed. Most were buried in mass graves, or simply thrown into hastily dug trenches. It is estimated that 2,000,000 people were killed -- about a third of the population at the time.The regime was largely ousted in 1979 but Cambodia was in a state of limbo and run by the Vietnamese until 1993 when the King was restored and power returned to an elected government. Cambodia as a modern country is only 20 years old. No wonder people look to the future, even though their greatest monuments are from the past. Pol Pot had great ideals, great motives, but the plan went awry. In Phnom Penh there are reminders of this at Chao Ponhea Yat High School (the notorious Tuol Sleng or S21 prison) and the Killing Fields. In Siem Reap, the memorial is a small building at Wat Thmey with glass windows housing the skulls and bones of some of those who perished. There are also a couple of boards with fading photos showing life in the dark days. It doesn't take long to go round. 15 minutes at most on the way back from Angkor. It's part of the past that many people would like to forget. But, like war memorials in Western Countries, it serves as a warning to future generations. If you want to know a little about Siem Reap's most recent past, take along an older tour guide. Let him tell you his story, and you too can shudder at the brutality and futility of it all. See more on: - www.humiliationstudies.org - www.humiliationstudies.org/whoweare/evelin/pics14.php - www.worlddignityuniversity.org

• published: 28 Mar 2014
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