My journeying
takes me to Cambodia this weekend. First to Phnom Penh - the capital of this
ancient land and then to Siam Reap – a city of ancient and very famous temples.
Cambodia has been populated since the fifth century. It was once a part of the
larger kingdom of Funan.
The Khmer
Empire arose between the 9th and the 13th centuries.
It was a period of great enlightenment and spirituality for the people of
Cambodia. It also fostered a temple building frenzy. The Angkor Wat temple
complex in Siam Reap was constructed during this golden age. The Angkor Wat is
the biggest collection of Hindi temples and the largest religious monument in
the world. It is one of the greatest man-made wonders on the planet.
The word
'Angkor' is Khmer for ‘city’ and a 'wat' is a temple. Angkor Wat is therefore a
city of temples. Even though Angkor Wat is located in a city called Siam Reap
and it is a rugged 5 hour drive from Phnom Penh - where I am staying - I will
go and see it.
How can I
not?
I have
arranged for a car and a driver to take me from Phnom Penh to Siam Reap. I
found him on the Internet. The driver's name is Black Rambo. His car is air
conditioned and he has posted some good recommendations on his Internet site. I
have had a flurry of email exchanges with Black Rambo about pick ups and drop
offs and timings. He sounds like a bit of a character and I like him already.
Following the
war in Vietnam in the 1970’s a political party called the Khmer Rouge emerged
in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge was led by a crazy man named Pol Pot. They seized
power in Cambodia through a military coup. Crazy is probably not an apt enough
description of the man named Pol Pot. He was actually a completely insane
fucker saturated by hate and power. He was a lunatic.
Certifiably
so.
Pol Pot
renamed Cambodia Kampuchea. History records the fact that during his regime Pol
Pot attempted genocide on several Cambodian ethnic groups in his country. The
Khmer Rouge maniacs slaughtered every person who they thought was associated
with the previous government. They also killed anyone involved with foreign
businesses and people they considered to be intellectuals or artists. They were
indiscriminate in their butchering of men, women and children.
Much
of the Khmer Rouge's cruel and bloody murders were inflicted on the Cham people
of Cambodia. Pol Pot established a mandate to wipe this ethnic tribe out
and he gave it a very good crack. The United Nations estimated that Pol Pot and
his military followers executed and murdered at least two million people during
his five year rule. More than 20,000 mass burial sites have been found across
the country. The most infamous of these places is known as the “Killing Fields”
It is a place of horror and terror and carnage.
Human
remains still litter the site.
In 1979 the
Vietnamese communists invaded Cambodia and deposed Pol Pot. Ironically it was
the same Vietnamese government that the Americans had failed to annihilate that
freed the persecuted Cambodian people and liberated them from the evil dictator
Pol Pot.
The word
'atrocity' is defined as an action or behavior that is wicked or ruthless. Like
many words in the English language it's origins are Latin. The original Latin
word is atrocitatem. It was used by the ancient Italians in the Roman
empire to describe an act of extreme cruelty. The Killing Fields of Cambodia are
a place of incredible wickedness and ruthlessness and cruelty.
It is a place
of atrocity.
The term
‘Killing Fields’ was coined by a Cambodian journalist named Dith Pran. A film
of his story of escape from Pol Pot’s death camps and his witness accounts of
the massacres and the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge was made into a Hollywood
film.
The film was
called “The Killing Fields”.
It
is my intention to visit the Killing Fields whilst I am in Cambodia. It will be
a stark contrast to the peaceful tranquility that I anticipate in the temple
grounds of the Angkor Wat. I have spoken to people who have been to the Killing
Fields and they have warned me that the experience will be harrowing and
shocking and traumatizing.
I
expect nothing less.
I
have been to the Nazi concentration and death camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka
in Poland. These horrific facilities have been preserved and like the Killing
Fields of Cambodia they are open to the public to view. They are tourist
attractions. I found the sadness and solemnity of these death camps to be
overwhelming and I anticipate experiencing the same emotions when I visit the
Killing Fields. Man’s inhumanity towards man has been appalling at times.
We
need to remind ourselves of the sins of our past.
The
term ‘man’s inhumanity towards man” was penned by the great Scottish
poet Ronnie Burns in his work “Man was made to mourn: A dirge”.
It
has been speculated by some literary critics that Burns may have reworded a
similar quote from Samuel Van Pufendorf.
He
wrote, “more inhumanity has been done by man himself than any other of
nature’s causes”.
Ronnie
wrote his dirge in 1784 and Samuel scripted his in 1673. This was several centuries
before Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot attempted their
genocides.
History
sometimes teaches us nothing.
Nor
either does poetry.
I
think it is important for we humans to maintain such reminders of our capacity
for great evil and to preserve them. They should serve as monuments to the
atrocities that were committed by such men as Pol Pot.
So
that they should never again be repeated.
No comments :
Post a Comment