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I
reached Phnom Penh from Siem Reap,
a small Cambodian town by a domestic
flight, and at the airport there
was Tith Senith waiting for me.
Peaceful and undisturbed, he represented
all the prominent features of Khmer,
the Cambodian race.
For two days, he guided me through
every nook and corner of Cambodia
and even helped me to film the sights
of relevance.
Cambodia is a land of misfortunes,
doomed by wars and internal conflicts.
Pol Pot, the Communist ruler of
Cambodia established his political
organization, and with the help
of his military troupe- Khmer Rouge,
brought to death, thousands of lives.
In fact, Pol Pot was the most inhumane
ruler the world ever witnessed,
after Hitler and his Nazi army.
Just as Hitler took the lives of
millions of Jews, Pol Pot murdered
about fourteen lakh Cambodians.
According to the agencies that conducted
studies regarding this, the death
toll might even go up to forty lakhs.
It is the manifestation of death
that one finds all over Cambodia.
Pol Pot’s killing fields and killing
chambers can be found even today
in the villages and towns, and are
now preserved as tourist spots.
343 killing fields were functional
in Cambodia. The prisoners were
either slain or beaten to death
using bamboo poles and were buried
together. The skeletons excavated
from the killing fields are exhibited
in a huge glass box, and this is
a terrifying sight.
It was Tith Senith who arranged
the trip to all the important sights
in and around Phoom Penh, and explained
to me their historical relevance.
It was to the Royal Palace that
we first went. I visited the famous
Buddhist monastery, the Silver Pagoda,
the War memorial, the Monument of
Freedom and finally arrived at a
notorious building.
It was a killing chamber that functioned
during the Pol Pot era. It was once
the most famous high school in Phnom
Penh. The school was closed in 1975
and was transformed into a jail
by the Khmer Rouge army. The Khmer
Rouge army declared educated people
to be anti- nationalists and thus,
teachers, doctors, writers, politicians
and scholars were imprisoned along
with their family in this jail,
named S-21.
The soldiers of Pol Pot found a
sadistic pleasure in torturing the
inmates terribly. Inhumane techniques
were employed to kill the prisoners.
Thousands of prisoners who were
brought to the jail were transferred
to the killing fields where they
were killed brutally and buried.
The Khmer Rouge soldiers were particular
in taking snaps of the prisoners
before killing them. These pictures
were kept for the sake of records.
Later these photos proved to be
valuable historical evidences.
The S-21 jail, which is also known
as Tall Sleng has two big halls,
in which these three photos are
exhibited in thousands. While I
was filming all these, Tith Senith
seemed very disturbed. He was wandering
among the exhibited photos, staring
at certain ones, at times. Tith
Senith had already told me that
he has been working as a tour guide
for almost eight years. From that
day he has been bringing tourists
to the jail museum.
But his disturbed look confused
me. When asked the reason, he narrated
a story..... a long one indeed.
It was the tragic story of his life.
The story goes thus:
Tith Senith's was a happy family
in Cambodia till the military coup
under Pol Pot took place in 1975.
Along with his parents and siblings,
he lived in a remote area of Phnom
Penh. Like many other families in
Phnom Penh, his family too was scattered
by the Khmer Rouge. His parents
and elder brothers were taken away
as prisoners.
Senith still remembers that they
were taken to Tall Sleng. Being
a small child Senith was left out
by the Khmer Rouge soldiers and
was brought up by some kind- hearted
people. Even after the Pol Pot era
came to an end, his kins never returned.
They had all bid good-bye to this
world. Senith, eventhough unable
to recollect his relatives’ faces
goes on searching for them among
the pictures of the dead prisoners.
In 1980, after the Khmer Rouge rule
came to an end, Senith was sent
to an orphanage.
He was educated there and became
proficient in English. Later he
returned to Phnom Penh and became
a tour guide.
“For the past eight years I have
been coming here. Every time I come
I search for my family among these
pictures with a hope that one day
I will be able to recognize them”.
Senith concluded.
I still remember the sad face of
the young man. He remains as a representative
of the tragedy stricken generation
of Combodia.
Will he able to find his relatives...
among those photographs at least....?
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