Road to Cambodia
- Part 4 -

R.K. Shivachandra *

Back to my land route trip to Cambodia.

After a short sojourn in Siem Reap we have headed for Phnom Penh, the Capital City of Cambodia. Despite our desire to have a riverine cruise on Tonle and Mekong River, we could not make it due to our tight schedule. This way we have missed the Asia's largest village and its fascinating towns by the river of Mekong. We also missed the rarest freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin.

It takes about four hours from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The road condition from Siem Reap to the city was superb. Unlike the road between Poipet to Siem Reap, the National High way this side seemed to have come of age. Some few years before this same stretch is said to have been ravaged by war and these parts of Cambodia received the highest number of bombardment and causalities. Villagers fled to the nearby jungles and whole of the cities was deserted.

During 1970 to 1975 clashes between the Khmer rouge and General Lon Nol troops escalated. In a book written by Huy Vanhak called "The Khmer Rouge from Victory to Self Destruction" it is mentioned that "Over the same time, United States dropped 540,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia, killing 150,000 people". It is unbelievable but true.

The USA backed Lon Nol troops who had a stronghold in Phnom Penh enjoyed American blessing. Acting on the advice of the USA, Lon Nol made a futile attempt to oust the communist Vietnamese who used certain Cambodian soil as their base camps making close ally with the Khmer Rouge. Vietnamese who had a bitter experience with the American armies never wish to go back to Vietnam to face the Americans.

So the ultimatum or the quit notice served to the North Vietnamese forces turn out to be a blessing at disguise. As a result of the invasion, the Vietnam forces advanced deeper into Cambodian soil and thus posing a greater threat to the Lon Non Government than ever.

In my personal view Lon Nol is also partially responsible for the terrible genocide occurred in Cambodia. He, for long kept fighting a losing battle against the Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese communist forces by making Phom Penh his tactical head office and thus posed a strong resistance to Khmer rouge from their entry into the city.

On the other hand Lon Non cordoned the City with his armies and not allowing the city dwellers to contact with the rest of the Cambodia. Khmer Rouge had a misconception that the people of Phnom Penh go hand in hand with Lon Non. Ultimately people had to pay the heavy price for one man's guilt.

When Khmer Rouge invaded the capital city and become its new master in 1975, the first thing they did was to evacuate all the inhabitants of the city to the farms and fields, considering them to be their harsh enemies. Record revealed that "Cambodia's tiny army never had a chance to stand against the Khmer Rouge.



Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces has controlled almost half of the country. The ultimate defeat came in July, 1970 when the Vietnamese seized the temple of Ankor".Had not he posed himself to be that of strong resistant forces despite against an accelerating force like Khmer Rouge who were wild and ferocious, many of the elite classes in Phnom Penh could have been saved from the dreaded jaws of Khmer Rouge.

By the time we reached Phnom Penh there was a heavy down pour and the city was almost flooded. The rickshaw puller who brought us to the hotel made their best effort to negotiate their way in the knee depth water. Somehow they managed it for these terrains have been known to them for years. Few steps away from the heart of the city lies the great Mekong River with her vastness form.

The evening rains and fogs made things blurred, yet the massive lighthouse and dock where ships of different shape and sizes were anchored came into full view. The river gives an ideal way to her neighbouring countries like Vietnam and Laos and undoubtedly Mekong is described to be the artery of Cambodia. Waterways in Cambodia are too important.

The Hotel staff seemed to be very pleased receiving 'a look alike team' as their guest in the form of foreigners. It left to wonder how much the Cambodians are close to us. They are the same people if not for the language.

Phnom Penh always boasts of being the mirror of whole of Cambodia. Compared to neighbouring Ho Chin Min City in Vietnam and Bangkok in Thailand, Phnom Penh had yet to pay hectic efforts to make it more organised metropolitan city. But for Manipur standard Cambodia is okay. A short four days sojourn may not be able to see all the worth visiting spots in Phnom Penh.

The best way is to concentrate on few places and be thorough on that. Touching all the spots in a whirlwind visit may be a wrong decision and fruitless one. Royal Palace, Royal University of fine Arts, Silver Pagoda, National Museum, Psar Tuol Tom Pong more commonly known as Russian market are popular tourist spots.

The City market places always offered an unbelievable cheap cost unlike Thailand and Hong Kong. Badminton Tennis rackets and other sports items are too cheap and we have been told that Cambodia is exempted from all kind of taxes. No doubt the city remains a hidden spot yet to be discovered by many who made shopping their 'love at first sight'.



Amidst the noisy crowd of Knom Penh leis the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. One had to visit the site with a deep sight with sign of respect to the millions of souls who have been tortured and killed. With reference to a booklet distributed at free of cost to the visitors at this site it is described that " In 1962 S-21 was a high school called " Ponhea Yat" named after the Royal Ancestor of King Norodom Sihanouk.

Later it was changed to Tuol Svay High school during the USA backed regime in 1970" Later during the regime of Khmer rouge it was converted to S-21 a concentration camp where gruesome torture and execution took place. In the present museum site laughing and speaking aloud is an immediate offence to the care takers who guard the museum with a gloomy look. "Don't laugh" sign was displayed around the campus.

As we had visited each chamber of the prison one after another, we saw a small piece of black board written the regulation of the Khmer Rouge hung in a corner of a wall. The regulation read as follows
(1) You must answer accordingly to my question. Don't turn them away
(2) Don't try to hide the facts by making pretexts of this and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me
(3) Do not be a fool for you are a cheap who dares to thwart the revolution.
(4) You must immediately answer my question without wasting time to reflect.
(5) Do not tell me either about your immorality or the revolution
(6) While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
( 7) Do nothing sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no others keep quiet. When I ask you to do something you should do it right away without protesting
(8) Do not make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your jaw of traitor.
(9) If you do not follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric ware
(10) If you disobey any point of my regulation you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.

Visiting this museum became a reminder of the countless victims who succumbed to a deadly death in the hands of security forces in Manipur. The excesses of the Khmer rouge and Arm Forces Special Power Act 1958 seemed to have a close relevance when one observed the degree of torture and punishments that have been meted out to their victims.
The museum is indeed a place to see and definitely for the Manipuris it pays befittingly and suggested not to be missed out even a single chamber. Every prison chamber tells different stories. If you ever mix- up the story of Cambodia and that of Manipur together than it would be a never ending nightmare.



To be continued....

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* R.K. Shivachandra, social worker based in Imphal, contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The writer can be reached at india_myanmar(at)yahoo(dot)com. This article was webcasted on February 13th, 2009.

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