KILLING FIELD

Leg bone and clothing of Khmer Rouge victims lie exposed

I'm out in the Cambodian countryside, walking down a well worn dirt path. Looking down, I spot what looks like a tree root protruding from the dirt. It catches my eye, because unlike dark tree roots, it’s white. That’s when I realize, I'm not looking at a tree root at all.

It’s a bone, a human leg bone!

Where I’m standing, is in the middle of a killing field. From 1975 – 1978, there were 17,000 people murdered here by the Khmer Rouge. Most were innocent civilians.

Everyone has heard of the 'killing fields' due to the movie of the same name, and I'm visiting one for the first time. This killing field is known as Choeng Ek, located eight miles south of Phnom Penh. Here is where the guards of Tuol Sleng prison sent all of their victims  to be executed and buried.

As I walk further along the path, I see dirty pieces of clothing of every color, lying all over the ground. This isn’t discarded garbage, this was clothing of the victims buried here. Like the bones I see, pieces of clothing have gradually been uncovered and surfaced over the years from excavations and erosion. Much of it has been left in place. This is one giant crime scene.

Buddhist monks walk by excavated mass graves

Four Buddhist monks pass by on the path, while I look at burial pits to either side of me. Walking between the pits, even more parts of bones are visible protruding from the earth. Here a broken leg bone is sticking out. There is part of a skull. This killing field is made up of numerous mass graves. Pit after pit after pit, the shocking total is 129 mass graves in all.  

To bear witness to the atrocities committed here, signs were posted on the site. Those beneath two nearby thatched roof enclosures, need no further explanation.

“MASS GRAVE OF 166 VICTIMS WITHOUT HEADS”

“MASS GRAVE OF 450 VICTIMS”

This killing field isn’t exactly a field, as some trees are scattered throughout. I come to a large tree, with a stack of leg and arm bones piled up at its base. Apparently, human bones are occasionally gathered up, and placed into piles at locations around the site. A sign next to the tree says, “MAGIC TREE…THE TREE WAS USED AS A TOOL TO HANG A LOUDSPEAKER WHICH MAKE SOUND LOUDER TO AVOID THE MOANB OF VICTIMS WHILE THEY WERE BEING EXECUTED”. Just how did they get ‘Magic Tree’, out of something so horrible?

Children were killed here. Other bones at right.

The Khmer Rouge didn’t have the money, or the know how to make gas chambers and crematoriums like the Nazis did. So they brought their victims here, to what used to be an old cemetery. The Khmer Rouge wanted to save money on bullets, so few were shot here. Most of their victims here were beaten to death, or stabbed. Their tools of death included steel rods, bamboo poles, axes, hoes, shovels, and knives.

Another large, leaning tree, with another pile of bones at it’s base, has a sign that is even more disturbing. “KILLING TREE AGAINST WHICH EXECUTIONERS BEAT CHILDREN”.

In the first year of the genocide, it was mostly the civilians with ‘soft hands’ that were executed here. That meant that the victims were non-farmers, such as teachers, businessmen, white collar workers, and the educated class. There are a few westerners buried here as well, and foreigners that were married to Cambodians.

By the final year of killing here, there were no more enemies from the old regime left to execute. By that time, the Khmer Rouge were killing their own. Their paranoia and violence had been turned on each other. In a Cambodian version of the Red Terror, communists turned on communists, making false accusations to turn in political rivals. This is when the more Vietnamese oriented Eastern Zone of Cambodia became the number one target of the Khmer Rouge. Many cadres and soldiers from that region ended up buried here. The current Prime Minister Hun Sen, was a Khmer Rouge cadre from that area. The only reason he wasn't killed by his comrades, was because he managed to escape and flee to Vietnam.

Another twisted modus operandi of the Khmer Rouge, was their extensive use of child soldiers. That method was used here, as many of the executioners at Choeng Ek were only teenagers! As Pol Pot sought to 'purify' Cambodia, he had many executioners that were between 13 to 19 years old. 

Photos of Tuol Sleng victims buried at Choeng Ek. Those killed here include women and children.

On some days, more than 300 people were murdered at this site. Killing here was like a factory, and most victims were killed by hand. The executioners killed not just men, but also women and children. The mental and emotional trauma of murdering so many people by hand was more than many of the executioners could handle. Over time, many of them could just not deal with the horror of their actions. Some went crazy, rebelled, or deserted, only to be caught and returned. In an ironic end for them, those executioners who tried to escape, were brought back to be killed in this very place, where they themselves had killed others. (This had also happened to some of torturers at Tuol Sleng prison.) Still others were faithful communists doing their duty to the end, but were betrayed by other cadres, falsely accused, and executed.  

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese led government began excavations here in 1980. Of the 129 mass graves here, 86 were excavated. The diggers found heads were often buried separately, so they were unable to match heads to their original bodies. The pits were dug deep, corpses were usually crammed together, with bodies stacked high. They dug up more than 8,900 corpses, before finally halting the excavations. I’m aware that as I tread lightly around the paths of this killing field, directly beneath my feet are the remains of thousands of more victims, still interred where they were originally buried.

Memorial stupa, with remains inside

As time has passed, some signs of life have returned to this somber place. Birds are chirping in the trees, and an occasional butterfly floats by. Free range chickens peck at the dirt. Goats and cows chew on grass beyond the border fence. Since they didn't excavate all of the mass graves, the cows are probably grazing right on top of them. A tragic fact, is that this is only one of the many killing fields across in Cambodia. A survey done after the war, found that there are at least 389 mass graves across the country.

Choeng Ek has few surviving buildings. The old Khmer Rouge office, detention building, and sheds were torn down by scavengers long ago. But there is one tall building; a memorial stupa built in 1988.

I approach the structure apprehensively, knowing what's inside. (I saw a similar stupa for Vietnamese massacred by the Khmer Rouge, across the border in Vietnam.) From a distance, it looks only like a whitish tower with windows. The familiar sloping Khmer rooftop with heads of snake-like nagas point up from the corners. As I get closer, I see what is behind the windows. Skulls. Layers and layers of human skulls, with shelves reaching higher and higher. There have to be thousands of human skulls here.

Surprisingly, the door isn't locked. My guide opens it, and gestures me to enter. I slowly step inside. Solo flute music floats down from somewhere. The stupa has 17 levels to symbolize April 17th, the day that Khmer Rouge rule began in 1975. I walk around the interior looking at them, level after level, skull after skull. They all stare right back at me, with their dark empty eyes. I remember all those enlarged photos of the faces of condemned prisoners back in the Tuol Sleng prison; they ended up executed here. I look at all of these skulls lined up together, staring back at me. These aren’t  just pictures on a wall any more. These are the genuine faces of death. The question comes to me, that comes to all visitors who see this. Why? Why? It’s a question no civilized person can answer. It’s answered only in the twisted logic, the barbarity, the insanity that made up the murderous mindset of the Khmer Rouge communists.

Inside the stupa, are shelves stacked with skulls of Khmer Rouge victims

Exiting the tower, on steps next to the stupa, I encounter a steel rod, with leg irons looped through it. If prisoners arriving on Chinese trucks got here too late at night for executions, these leg irons were put over their ankles. The condemned were all forced to lie in a row, shackled to the same steel rod. There are enough leg irons here to shackle six people together. Some of the leg irons here look too small to fit around an adult’s ankle. My guide says that in that case, the guards would break the prisoner’s ankle, to make it fit.

Choeng Ek has its greatest number of annual visitors on May 20th, the local Memorial Day, when many Khmers who lost relatives here come to remember them. My guide says he's been here then, and that many seniors cry.

One of the signs I read as I’m about to leave, gives the best description I’ve seen yet of the Khmer Rouge leaders.

“THE METHOD OF MASSACRE WHICH THE CLIQUE OF POL POT CRIMINALS WAS CARRIED UPON THE INNOCENT PEOPLE OF KAMPUCHEA (CAMBODIA) CANNOT BE DESCRIBED FULLY AND CLEARLY IN WORDS BECAUSE THE INVENTION OF THIS KILLING METHOD WAS STRANGELY CRUEL SO IT IS DIFFICULT OR US TO DETERMINE WHO THEY ARE FOR : THEY HAVE THE HUMAN FORM BUT THEIR HEARTS ARE DEMON’S HEARTS, THEY HAVE GOT THE KHMER FACE BUT THEIR ACTIVITIES ARE PURELY REACTIONARY. THEY WANTED TO TRANSFORM CAMPUCHEAN PEOPLE INTO A GROUP OF PERSONS WITHOUT REASON OR A GROUP WHO KNEW AND UNDERSTOOD NOTHING, WHO ALWAYS BENT THEIR HEADS TO CARRY OUT ANKAR’S ORDERS BLINDLY THEY HAD EDUCATED AND TRANSFORMED YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE ADOLESCENT WHOSE HEARTS ARE PURE, GENTLE AND MODEST INTO ODIOUS EXECUTIONERS WHO DARED TO KILL THE INNOCENT AND EVEN THEIR OWN PARENTS, RELATIVES OR FRIENDS.”

Some executioners survived those years, and remain free to this day. They have never been arrested for their crimes here at this killing field. I asked my guide what he thought about the Khmer Rouge who are alive today, and he told me, “We forgive them, but we never forget.”

WOMAN'S STRENGTH SURVIVES GENOCIDE

Palla, survivor of the Khmer Rouge

I met Palla in a former prison, and torture center. We talked in the courtyard of 'S-21', a former Khmer Rouge prison in Cambodia, known as today as the Tuol Sleng genocide museum. A Khmer woman in her 50's, her hair is pulled back and parted. But what really stands out is her face, which has the look of a woman who has struggled to survive.

I sat down on a bench with Palla to learn more about the prison, but her own story was also gripping. As a flock of birds hopped about on a nearby railing, her story unfolded.

Palla was just a girl from military family in the eastern town of Svay Rieng when the war with the Khmer Rouge began. One brother was a Navy captain, another in the Air Force. As the war raged, she eventually moved to Phnom Penh in the early 1970’s for safety. 

When the war ended in 1975, she was only 17, a young bride when the communist Khmer Rouge entered the capital.  Folks were initially happy, as the war was finally over. But the Khmer Rouge immediately forced everyone to leave the city, and walk into the countryside. Palla says that she didn’t even have time to go home and pack up belongings to take with her. Additionally, the Khmer Rouge forced people of different neighborhoods to march out of town in different directions, so her family was split up immediately. So they marched to totally different parts of the country. She never saw some of her relatives again.

Palla's first husband was killed by the Khmer Rouge shortly after the war ended. As an Army soldier, he was targeted for execution. Her first daughter, and her father, died of starvation in Khmer Rouge labor camps. 4 of her 10 brothers and sisters died during the Khmer Rouge genocide. Her mother didn’t survive either. 

Barbed wire surrounds former Khmer Rouge prison and torture center

Somehow, Palla learned how all of her relatives were killed by the Khmer Rouge. She told me how this one was clubbed to death, that one was drowned, that one was killed by bamboo pole strikes to the back of the head and neck. If the Khmer Rouge cadres had learned of Palla's background, she would have been killed too. But immediately upon leaving Phnom Penh, everyone in her family changed their names. She shortened her name from ‘Palla’ to ‘La’.

Under orders, she did all kinds of manual, forced labor during those years of communism. She labored to make dikes, and canals. She worked on farm communes, planting and harvesting rice and corn by hand. To work different projects, the Khmer Rouge forced her to move back and forth from the east side of Cambodia to the west. Sometimes she walked for days. When she was lucky, she was transported by truck, boat or train.

When the Khmer Rouge were finally forced out of power, she returned to Phnom Penh. One surviving brother became a policeman. Palla's sister used to be a French teacher, and she became the first director of this grim museum of genocide. Having that position, she was able to give Palla a job here at Tuol Sleng as well. Palla has worked here since 1979.

Palla cleaned up the pool of blood left in this torture room, but left some blood spots as evidence

Palla's first job was cleaning this wretched place, not a pleasant task. When she first cleaned out the wooden and brick prison cells that I had visited, Palla had to remove scorpions and lice! 

Even worse, the interrogations rooms had pools of blood left on the floors from their final torture victims, and she was responsible for cleaning them all! Although she cleaned up of most of the dried blood, she left some blood spots on the floors for future evidence.

Palla married again after the war, and had three more children. But her second marriage wouldn't last either. In 1984, in the midst of the Vietnamese war with the Khmer Rouge, her husband left to escape to Thailand. She never heard from him again. Palla thinks that he’s dead. Like so many others that tried to escape to Thailand, he may have died in the minefields, though she may never know for sure. One of her sons also died years later in a motorcycle accident.

After the war, Palla took classes to learn English. Eventually she become more than a cleaner here, she also became a guide for the genocide museum. She is also a witness, as this prison has additional family connections for her. When written prison records left behind by the Khmer Rouge were examined, Palla learned that her brother and sister-in-law had been imprisoned here. Her brother had been an Air Force pilot, before he was eventually captured and brought to Tuol Sleng with his wife. They both were executed. They had found the document with her brother's signed confession, obtained through torture, like so many others sentenced to death here.

Crudely cut doorways between prison rooms

Palla tells me that she had a dream last night about her father. She misses her daughter too, the one that died in the famine brought on by the Khmer Rouge. She sometimes cries, because she has enough food to eat now, and back during the famine her daughter didn’t. Palla had no medicine to give her daughter back then either. She says that now medicine is available, and cheap in Cambodia.

Affected by her story, I tell Palla, “I think you are the strongest woman I have ever met.”

She says back to me, “They saw me strong. But I have broken everything. My heart, stomach, eye.” Palla has to take a heart medication these days, and also lost vision in one eye five years ago, to a cataract. She gets by ok these days, but she can’t afford cataract surgery.

Still, Palla has a positive outlook on life, as she's a survivor, and far better off than before. She currently lives with one of her surviving daughters and grandchildren.

“Everything now better,” she tells me. “I have food, rice. I have better than during Khmer Rouge (years.) I don’t have car or motorcycle, but I don’t care. My life is now better." 

One of the buildings in Tuol Sleng prison, where Palla works

As I leave Tuol Sleng, I'm glad that the last thing I remember about this prison, is Palla's smile after I gave her a $20 tip. 

She deserves more.

THE CONDEMNED INNOCENTS

Photos of women and girls executed at S-21 (aka Tuol Sleng) in Phnom Penh

Jaw dropping. This is unbelievable, and not in a good way. 

I'm in the infamous ex-prison known as S-21, built by the communists in a Phnom Penh school. I've already seen prison cells, and the awful interrogation rooms used for torture. It's no wonder that several ex-Khmer Rouge leaders are now on trial for crimes against humanity.

I enter the last prison building, and this schoolroom is full of photos. There are enlarged 8X10 pictures of prisoners, each taken as they arrived to S-21. The photos are mounted on both sides of large easels. There are 140 on each, with 10 easels in the room. Face after face after face, adding up to 1,400 photos of people who were imprisoned here, and murdered. And that’s just this room. In the next room are more pictures, and the next room, and the next. How disturbing. 

Most of the prisoners have some kind of ID number pinned to their shirt, the black communist uniform all were forced to wear. All the men have their arms tied behind their back.

Male inmates of S-21, later executed

Most photos were shot mugshot style, but a few are very graphic, showing the victims after they’ve been tortured to death. A few photos show the unlucky foreigners that were killed here. The Khmer Rouge were so xenophobic, that being a foreigner could bring a death sentence.

I look at another section of photos. These are all women. Nearly all of these ladies have their hair cut in a bob, the hairstyle forced on them by the Khmer Rouge. A couple women hold their child in their arms. Most adults have a stoic look on their face, which was the basic face of survival in those years. Others show worry, fear, or sadness. A few have faces of defiance. Most knew that they would be dead soon. When someone was accused of being a ‘traitor’, Khmer Rouge justice didn’t stop with the accused. His wife and children often ended up here too.

The most disturbing group of photos, is the whole section of photos of children. Boys, girls, there are children of all ages, even toddlers. Some of them have the serious faces of children who have seen too much. Others look at the camera with that pure, adorable look of innocence that all children have. One mother poses for her mugshot holding her baby. 

None of them survived. They were all killed. 

A morbid room has a series of skulls on display. These skulls have tell tale fractures, or bullet holes. A caption beneath one reads like a line from one of those strangely popular American TV shows about forensic police investigators. But this isn't TV, this is reality. The caption reads:

4. Cranium of a man, 20 – 40 years old.
Gunshot wound of right superior parietal convexity (top of the head) with the bullet passing downward into the skull through the brain and exit to the left of the foramen magnum (base of the neck where the spinal cord emerges from brain). [Catalogue No. TSL15, 2A50695].

The faces of innocent children that were executed by the Khmer Rouge

I leave this moving display, and return to the old school yard. It's now a fenced-in prison compound. There used to be several layers of fencing, now there are only two. It's topped by several layers of barbed wire, which kept desperate prisoners from escaping.

During school days children played here, and in the yard is a tall frame of what may have been a swing set. Below it are 2 very large ceramic jars, like those used for storing water. A sign explains how these were used for their evil means.

THE GALLOWS
This pole with cables attached to it had been used for the student to conduct their exercise. The Khmer Rouge utilized this place as interrogation room. The interrogators tied both hands of the prisoners to the back by a rope and lift the prisoners upside down. They did like this until the prisoners lost consciousness. Then they dipped the prisoner’s head into a jar of smelly, filthy water, which they normally used as fertilizer for the crops in the terrace outside. By doing so, the victims quickly regain consciousness, and that the interrogators could continue their interrogation.

By their last year in power, the Khmer Rouge had turned against its own members in a cannibalistic manner. The paranoid regime began to arrest, torture and execute many cadres and soldiers in its own ranks. These even included some of the torturers and guards who worked here. Many of them became victims of this very place. Some of the S-21 torturers, were tortured here in S-21, in the same rooms where they had tortured others. Is that justice?

Gallows used to torture inmates during questioning

Although the interrogators/torturers were men, the survivors say that there was once a female interrogator. They say that she had left S-21, after she went insane. 

But some of the other torturers survived. S-21 was also only one of many prisons and torture centers across Cambodia, so many torturers fled and survived the war. None of them have ever been arrested or tried for their crimes.

Only one key figure has been brought to justice so far. The warden of this prison, known as Duch, has been put on trial for crimes against humanity. I will soon attend his trial.

S-21 is now called the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Like the Nazi death camps, this horrible place is being preserved to teach future generations about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.

A young visiting British backpacker expressed his dismay as he left this museum. “My parents didn’t even tell me about this,” I heard him say, still shocked. “They probably didn’t even know about it.”

Former school building housed condemned prisoners from 1975 - 1978

But I'll never forget it. Leaving Tuol Sleng, I step back out into Phnom Penh, leaving the genocide behind. 

Or do I? As I see adult Cambodians going about their daily affairs, I’m reminded that every single person old enough to remember the Khmer Rouge years, has been left traumatized. They personally witnessed the genocide that I've just learned about. They survived, but they all lost friends and family. 

On the opposite end, some of the men here in this city, are former Khmer Rouge soldiers themselves. They took part in the killings and other genocidal atrocities, and they still walk free. 

It really makes me wonder, how many ex-Khmer Rouge have driven me around this city? How many of them have I met in shops, or greeted on the street?

Never mind. I really don't want to know.

TORTURE ROOMS IN KHMER ROUGE PRISON

Cramped cells in the S-21 prison

I’m in a high school courtyard in Phnom Penh, but this is no ordinary school. With several three story high buildings, there is room here for over a thousand students.

Or prisoners.

After the communist Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh in 1975, they converted this school into a prison called 'S-21'. It is today known as Tuol Sleng. Once a place of youth and learning, this school was transformed into a place of unspeakable torture and inhumanity. I had already seen the down sides of ‘revolution’ in neighboring Vietnam and Laos, but nowhere were the communists more evil and murderous than here in Cambodia.

Of the more than 17,000 people who were imprisoned here at Tuol Sleng, only 7 prisoners survived. All the thousands of others who were brought here were executed, tortured to death, or died in their cells from disease or mistreatment. The only reason that those 7 inmates were allowed to live, was because they happened to possess skills that their captors could use. One was an artist, forced to carve busts of their maniac leader Pol Pot. Another was a photographer, who took mug shots of doomed prisoners. 

Dreading what I'm going to see here, I enter the former school, walking into what once was a classroom. But the desks are gone, replaced by several sets of poorly built prison cells. Some are made of wood, others made of brick. There's no electricity; the only light peeks in from windows and small vents, leaving dark shadows across the room. I step into one of the eerie cells to get the feel of the place. Claustrophobic isn't the word; I’ve been in closets bigger than this. This cell is so small, there isn't enough room to lie down. For the prisoners it was far worse, they had to share these cells with other inmates.

Inmates were inhumanely shackled together by their ankles, to these metal poles

Stepping back out, I find a door has been knocked out through the school room wall's center, revealing another room full of cells. No door frame was installed; jagged brick and mortar was left exposed. Looking through, I see another crude door cut into the next room's far wall, and the next. This crudely cut hallway made it easier for the Khmer Rouge to police their doomed prisoners.

Exiting this gloomy scene, I head upstairs to the main detention rooms. On this level there there are no cells. Prisoners' ankles were locked in leg shackles, attached directly to a long steel pole on the floor. This forced prisoners to lie on the tiled floor tightly together, side by side, all day and night. This kept them immobilized; a method of confinement learned from French colonials. To relieve themselves, they had to use a bucket where they lay. Hygiene was non-existent; this led to rampant diarrhea. Shackled to these poles, inmates sometimes couldn't get a bucket, leaving them to lie in their own feces. They were released from these shackles only for interrogation and torture.

Barbed wire on upper walkways was to prevent prisoner suicides

I leave the room for the walkway, which like most Asian schoolhouses, is open to the exterior. Here I find barbed wire, stretched from the railings to the ceiling. The barbed wire was installed to prevent the prisoners from jumping to their deaths. Some of the poor souls here chose suicide, rather than continuing to endure the torture and horrific conditions of S-21.

On average, the prisoners of Tuol Sleng survived here for 1 - 3 months, until their 'interrogation' was complete. By that time, repeated torture had forced them into confessing to crimes, real or imagined. Then they were taken away to be executed in the killing fields.

At times S-21 was packed with prisoners beyond capacity. There were occasions when truckloads of prisoners arrived, and the prison was already overfilled. So the trucks never unloaded. The prisoners were just sent off for immediate execution.

Entering an adjacent school building, I find another former class room. In happier times, eager students were questioned by their teachers here. But after the communists took over, there was questioning in this room of a different kind. The Khmer Rouge called it an interrogation room. What it really was used for, was torture.

Torture room used by Khmer Rouge, with cat sleeping under the bed

The horrors wroght by the Khmer Rouge finally came to light in 1979, when they fled Phnom Penh ahead of the advancing Vietnamese Army. When Vietnamese troops first captured this prison, they were appalled by what they saw. Entering this very room, they found the mutilated body of a man lying on a bed, his leg still shackled to the frame. On the floor beneath the bed was a pool of blood. In the next room, they found a similar gruesome scene. And the next room, and the next. In all, there were 14 corpses in this building, and all had been tortured to death. One of them was a woman. Each was left lying where they had died, as the torturers and guards had fled the city. Before the Vietnamese soldiers removed the bodies, they photographed each gory scene; a photo showing the gruesome scene found in this room is on the wall. The unnamed torture victims are buried in the school courtyard.

This sad room is now eerily quiet and calm. Except for the corpse, most of what was originally found in this room was left right where it was found. The bed is still here, with a bamboo mat stretched across it. There’s an ammunition case - prisoners used it as a toilet. There's a shovel, used as a torture implement. Looking closer on the floor, is another disturbing sight. Spots of blood stains, left from the room’s final victim.

This room may be the most evil place I've ever seen. Unspeakable acts took place here. It is truly unfathomable, that any man could do this to his fellow man. A sign posted outside lists the 10 rules that prisoners had to follow during interrogations. Presuming the prisoner's guilt, numbers 6, 9 and 10, are chillingly brutal.

Torture rooms seen at the left, the last victims were buried in the school courtyard

THE SECURITY OF REGULATION
1. you must answer accordingly to my questions – Don’t turn them away.
2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that You are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Don’t be fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
4. you must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of 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 order, keep quiet. when I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting
8. Don’t make any pretext about Kampuchea Krom (Lower Cambodia) in order to hide your secret or traitor.
9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either 10 lashes or 5 shocks of electric discharge.

Of all 17,000 prisoners, only these 7 men survived (museum photo)

The windows of the interrogation rooms, are different from others in the prison. Unlike others that only had French shutters, the interrogation rooms all had glass windows. This was because when the prisoners were being tortured here, their screams of pain and agony could be heard throughout the prison. So they installed glass windows to make the screams less audible.

The other torture rooms, have similar scenes with similar furniture. Beds, chains, and primitive torture implements. Each has an enlarged photo on the wall, showing the graphic scene of how the prisoner's bloody corpse was found here on the final day. 

One room has a strange difference. For some reason, a stray cat is lying under the foot of the bed, sound asleep, at peace. 

The old school and former prison is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

KING'S FATE IN JUNGLE PRISON

High altitude town of Sam Neua, where clouds pass below the peaks

Fast moving clouds flow quickly across the valley before me. I am so high up in altitude, that clouds are passing beneath the foliage covered peaks beyond. Just another beautiful morning in the Annamite Mountains of Laos, in the remote northeastern town of Sam Neua.

I admire the view in this obscure town, but I’m not staying. I’m only passing through, waiting to board a truck this morning heading further east. Growing impatient, I climb into the front passenger seat to wait. Looking down on the floor by my feet, I find an old US made ammunition case! Opening it up for a look, it's full of tools. It may be rusty, but ammo cases make great tool boxes.

Finally the driver gets in and we depart, driving east into the mountains. Outside town we pass a walled compound with new buildings, and looking in I notice a couple of Russian made military jeeps parked inside. 

During a chance meeting with a relative of the Vice-Governor, I was told me who’s in that compound. 

Old US made ammo case in my ride

“That Vietnam Army base,” the relative told me. 

Curious at the presence of Vietnamese troops still in Laos, I asked, "Why is that base there?"

“To protect the border,” he answered. 

Hmmm... We’re not that close to the border; by road it’s three hour's drive. If they are here to ‘protect the border’, then why are they based so deep inside Laos? I remember the Vietnamese 'general' that I had met on a train to Hanoi. He said he was based on the border, was he based here?

Back during the war, one of the rallying cries for the Pathet Lao rebels, was to put an end to ‘foreign interference’ in Laos. Those who actually believed in this idea were betrayed by the communist leadership after the war. 

When the Vientiane agreement was signed in 1973, all foreign troops were agreed to be withdrawn, and the American advisers and Thai troops left soon afterwards. The North Vietnamese Army on the other hand, remained. In the post war years, Vietnamese influence continued, and so did the presence of Vietnamese troops. As I’ve just seen on the road, that presence continues to this day, although in smaller numbers. 

New bridge in Sam Neua, Laos. Most of the workers are Vietnamese, not Laotian.

The Laotian government’s dependence had merely shifted. They were no longer reliant on America, they became reliant on Vietnam. Even with the cold war is over, some of that reliance continues. Fortunately, most of that reliance is now sent as economic aid, rather than military aid. 

I recall how back in Sam Neua the previous day, I had seen a new bridge under construction over the Xam River. This aid project is led by a Vietnamese construction company, and the laborers were Vietnamese. I had asked a local Laotian about them, and she admitted that those men weren’t very popular here. One thing hasn’t changed over the years; most Laotians continue to dislike the Vietnamese. 

As my Laotian ride takes me deeper into rugged Houaphan Province, I think back to my time in Luang Prabang, and the fate of the last Laotian king. His final years were spent somewhere in this region, in a secret jungle prison. In those post-war years, the bamboo gulags of Houaphan held more than 15,000 prisoners. They were former soldiers, policemen, government officials, and others that had opposed the communists. Some who held high positions were imprisoned for 15 years. Some never left alive. 

The king died in a jungle prison (photo:RLA)

These camps were located in this poor region by the communists, so that they could punish the prisoners through primitive living conditions. In some cases, prisoners were even forced to build their own internment camp! The remote location was also strategic. If a prison camp was located anywhere in western Laos, escape would have been easier with Thailand close by. Since the communists put the prison camps on the eastern border, escape to Thailand was nearly impossible. Anyone escaping east across the border to Vietnam, would probably be quickly captured and sent back to Laos. 

Those imprisoned here never had a trial, and were denied their rights. The Geneva Convention didn’t exist in Laos. Days were filled with hard labor, endless indoctrination sessions, and poor food. Some were executed. Others died of mistreatment, or from denial of medical care. If a prisoner didn’t survive, the government didn’t even give their family an official explanation as to how they had died. I wonder if any of these same prisons ever held any of the American soldiers that were missing in action (MIA) after they disappeared during the war. 

The most secret of these prisons was Camp 5, the gulag for highest level prisoners that were never released. It’s believed that the Laotian royal family were imprisoned there. The king, queen, and two princes died in the camp, and how they actually died was never explained to the public. It's believed that King Sisavang Vatthana died in 1980, from mistreatment, and from denial of medical care. The location of their graves remains secret to this day. Later accounts say the royal family are buried somewhere out here in unmarked graves, much as the Bolsheviks hid the bodies of the Romanoffs. 

Mountains that sheltered communist HQ during the war

In this post cold war era, almost all of the old prison camps in this region have been shut down, but unlike in Vietnam, there is no public access allowing me to see the old prisons that are no longer in use. Not all of these bamboo gulags have been closed though, there are still some prisoners held here, hidden from the outside world. Some sent here recently, were prisoners of conscience. 

When democracy movements began sweeping across Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, some Laotians in high places began to push for democratic reforms. Much like his patrons in Vietnam and China, the old commie Kaysone squashed any attempt at democracy. Three intellectual government reformists were arrested In 1990, and quickly imprisoned. They included the Vice-Minister of Economics and Planning, Vice-Minister of Science and Technology, and a Justice Ministry official. All were sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in one of the old Houphan labor camps. One of the reformists died in prison in 1998, due to a lack of medical care. The open war in Laos is over, but the secret war against democracy continues.

As our truck rumbles along, the rural landscape opens up, revealing a group of karst mountains to the south. From my distant perspective, I can’t help but think that they resemble a giant six pack of beer. I’m unaware of their significance, but these mountains are my destination. Those towering peaks are Viengxay, and during the war this was the most important stronghold of the communist Pathet Lao Army. I'll be arriving soon. 

CORRUPTION, DAMS AND GULAGS

Once dry land, the water level has risen due to a dam

Gazing out our vehicle’s window, palm trees wave in the breeze as we cruise down a narrow rural road. While watching the world pass by, I see an odd looking lake in the hills to the east. Out in the brown waters of a lake, are small hilltop islands close to shore; longtail boats cruise their way between them. On one small island, I spot cattle that have been stranded. They have a confused look about them, as they wait to be rescued. That’s when I realize that that this isn’t a natural lake. These waters come and go, and these islands are only temporary. What the cattle are standing on, is really just a hill that became an island after recent rains. This isn’t a natural lake at all, it’s a vast reservoir for the Nam Ngum Dam, north of Vientiane.  

Built with foreign aid, Nam Ngum was built during the war, opened in 1971 to provide hydroelectric power. After the communists took over, the dam’s reservoir took on an additional function: as a prison. The islands held not loose cattle, but Laotians associated with the old regime. Out on larger islands of the reservoir, two prison camps were built. One island prison was for men, another for women. 

When the Pathet Lao took over in 1975, they rounded up an estimated 20,000 – 40,000 Laotians. These included soldiers, policemen, teachers, Royal Laotian Government officials,  and office workers who had worked for westerners. Just as had been done in Vietnam, the prisoners were sent to remote prison camps for ‘re-education’. Added to these 'enemies of the state', were other undesirables that didn’t fit in with the new ‘communist paradise’. Also sent to the bamboo gulags, were prostitutes and opium addicts from Vientiane. 

Fortunately, with the liberalization of government policies, that dark chapter has for the most part passed. The prisons on the reservoir were closed years ago. 

The Nam Ngum resevoir (Photo: 123 rf)

Nam Ngum Dam is still in operation today, and some of the electricity produced provides power for Vientiane. The rest of the electricity is exported to Thailand, and I remember the power lines across the Mekong that I had seen at Friendship Bridge. As a poor landlocked country, Laos has few prospects for development, and hydropower is being pushed even more these days. As one Laotian government official boasted, “Laos will be the battery of Southeast Asia.”

Hydroelectric dams in Laos are controversial, since there is an ongoing boom of dam construction. There are currently seven dam projects under construction in Laos, and even more are being proposed for the countries many rivers. 

One of the larger dams, called the ‘Nam Theun 2’, is currently being built in central Laos, on the Nakai plateau. Although the project is backed by the World Bank, it’s been running behind schedule. Since the Nam Theun River is a tributary to the Mekong, the project has received a great deal of criticism from environmentalists, and sociologists concerned about affected communities. 6,000 villagers from the area have already been relocated to make room for the reservoir, and nobody knows what the long term effects of the dam will be on the environment. Initially I thought that hydroelectric dams would be good for Laos, but an Australian scientist I spoke with in Vientiane convinced me otherwise. 

“Laos doesn’t need any more dams,” he said knowingly. According to him, it wasn’t need that was driving their creation. “A guy shows up with a suitcase full of money,” he said, “then they get approval to build another dam.” 

Hydropower, as well as increased logging and mining, have been a mixed blessing for Laos. The rise in business has brought in much needed foreign capital, and more villages are receiving electrical power. But the Laotian people are still not the main beneficiaries. With the return to Laos of large scale infrastructure projects as well as mining and logging, the resulting rise in corruption was predictable. Local government officials who had been earning less than $100 a month, soon found fat contracts crossing their desks that were worth millions of dollars. 

The Vientiane Times gave one example of the problem. This rare story condemning corruption by government controlled media, is startlingly frank. 

Laotian power lines. Most hydroelectric power here is sold to neighboring Thailand.

“Prosecutors fail to bring corrupt officials to trial

Prosecutors are still unable to bring to trial government officials who break the law and abuse their position of power because of lack of cooperation from the sectors concerned. The Lao People’s Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has identified a number of criminal cases among government officials, ranging from corruption to helping people illegally sell timber and provide land concessions. 

But prosecutors are unable to pursue these cases and submit the results of their inquiries to the court for subsequent trial and judgement because other government agencies do not provide the necessary cooperation, according to a report from the office. At present, the only stop most state agencies take against offending officials is to ask them to make a commitment not to repeat their wrongdoing. Those who commit a serious crime are removed from office without the case going to court. 

The Supreme Prosecutor urges the government to use its administrative powers to address the isue, saying unless it does so people will lose confidence in the leadership of the Party and government.”

With the lack of accountability, the Laotian judicial system is failing to reduce corruption. It’s no wonder that Transparency International’s 2012 Corruption Perception Index ranked Laos as 160th out of 174 countries in the world. That makes Laos more corrupt than Vietnam. 

Since Laos lacks high tech professionals, it continues to be foreigners supervising the work on these big projects. I recall a dinner in Vientiane, where I met Tatiana, a twenty-something Moscovite who had been here for a year.

“I work for construction company, (they) build dam,” she said from behind her glasses. She told me that even though the dam wasn’t yet finished, the power had already been sold to Thailand. 

Although Tatiana enjoyed her work, she didn’t like Laos. In less than a week, she would go back to Russia for vacation. She missed home, and missed Russian cuisine. But it wasn’t just the food that made Tatiana dislike Laos. She'd been sick lately, home in bed for a week with a bad fever. “I had ra tifis,” she said.

“Excuse me?” I said. “Sorry, I don’t understand.” She repeated herself a few times, and I finally got her meaning. 

“Oh!” I said realizing, “Rat Typhus!!!”

That poor young lady. She came all the way here to work in a foreign country, and ended up with a disease transmitted by vermin. I’m enjoying my time in Laos, but I wouldn't be surprised, if Tatiana never came back from her vacation. 

'HANOI HILTON' PRISON AND SENATOR MCCAIN

Entrance to Hoa Lo Prison, aka 'The Hanoi Hilton'

Future Senator McCain, as a young prisoner of war (Source: Hoa Lo Museum)

I’m heading down Hai Ba Trung, one of Hanoi’s busy downtown streets. Motorbikes and buses buzz by, until I turn on a quiet side street, finding a walled old colonial complex. Reaching the gate, a French arch over double doors reads, ‘Maison Centrale’. This entrance gate is misleadingly pleasant in appearance.

Upon passing inside, I find forbidding hallways, and dark rooms with steel doors. Electric fencing across the rooftop gives away the purpose of this place. This wasn’t just any little 'maison', this was a prison! Located in downtown Hanoi, this is the infamous former prison known as Hoa Lo. It is better known in the US by the name that American Prisoners of War gave it: "The Hanoi Hilton'.

Dark cells in the prison's 'death row' - Hoa Lo Prison is now a museum

Within these dismal walls, hundreds of American POW’s were held captive, as the war dragged on for longer than anyone expected. Hoa Lo happens to be a prison where the Vietnam War’s most famous prisoner of war was held captive. That prisoner was a Navy pilot, by the name of Lt. John McCain.

Flying a bombing mission over Hanoi in 1967, McCain’s A-4 aircraft was struck by a missile. Ejecting as his jet spun downward, his helmet and oxygen mask were blown off. Both of his arms and a leg were broken. He landed in Hanoi’s Truc Bach Lake, and barely able to move from his injuries, he was pulled from the water by the Vietnamese. In a rage from the deadly air attacks, McCain was beaten, and stabbed with a bayonet.

Brought to a prison and left in a bare cell, McCain was denied medical treatment. He nearly died. Then the

Old aerial view of Hoa Lo Prison (Source: Hoa Lo Museum)

Vietnamese military learned that his father was a Navy admiral. Deciding  that McCain was more valuable to them alive then dead, they finally gave him medical treatment. They hoped to use him for propaganda purposes. This didn’t stop them from mistreating him later, and during the next 5 1/2 years, he was tortured and beaten numerous times. Years later when became a US Senator, he spoke up repeatedly against the use of torture, since he had survived it himself in this prison.

French colonials imprisoned the Vietnamese in leg restraints

Hoa Lo prison was originally built by the French back in 1896. During colonial years the inmates here were Vietnamese revolutionaries and criminals. As bad as it was during the American years, conditions were even worse when it was a French prison. Originally built to hold less than 500 inmates, it was later packed to hold nearly 2,000.

Entering a long, open prison room, I learn how French guards dealt with the problem of overcrowding. On both sides of the room are long wooden platforms, where Vietnamese prisoners were lined up one after the other. Running lengthwise on these platforms are leg stocks, and the prisoners were restrained with one, or both of their feet locked inside. This way they were forced to either sit, or lay down in one spot for nearly the entire day. Since the prison is now a museum, emaciated dummies have been placed in the stocks to demonstrate the effect. It looks like something out of a cruel, 19th century slave ship.     

Depiction of French torturing Vietnamese in the prison

 
Most of the Hoa Lo museum is dedicated to Vietnamese prisoners who fought the French, and for some Vietnamese inmates, their punishment here was final. Entering another grim room, I come upon a guillotine. This isn’t some side show reproduction either, this instrument of death is genuine. Invented during the terrors of the French revolution, the colonials brought the guillotine to Vietnam, and it was used in this prison to execute murderers and revolutionaries. Down a dark adjacent hall, depressing brick prison cells make up the section which was Hanoi’s death row.

Stepping into an inner courtyard, I happen upon a bas relief depicting the torture of Vietnamese prisoners here. After North Vietnam won its independence from France in 1954, the communists took over Hoa Lo. A decade later, the Vietnamese would use some of those same torture techniques that had been inflicted on them, on American prisoners held here. There is no bas relief depicting that.

Heading for a corner of the prison, I find the smallest cells of all. I open the creaky steel door, and look inside. Small, dark and empty, the cell is

Conditions were inhumane in these cells for solitary confinement

totally without furniture. With very little light, it is practically a dungeon. These were for solitary confinement, and the shutters were usually kept closed in the summer, making the heat stifling. For the Vietnamese, and the Americans who languished here, these cells were despair at its worst.

As if these cells weren’t bad enough, the communists occasionally restrained McCain and other prisoners here by their feet. Just inside the door is the room’s only feature; metal leg irons on the floor. When prisoners were locked into these, conditions were filthy, since prisoners had no choice but to relieve themselves where they sat. The concrete floor is relatively clean now, but at prison camps across Vietnam, American POWs were often not allowed to bathe for days or weeks at a time.

Most of the museum is dedicated to Vietnamese who suffered here, but two rooms have displays on American prisoners. As usual, their propaganda claims that the Americans were treated well here, and any mistreatment of POWs is completely omitted.

There are some intriguing photos here. An old black and white propaganda photo shows Vietnamese troops parading American POWs through Hanoi streets, while citizens look on. I wonder if Vietnamese even realize today, that parading around war prisoners is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Upon one wall, is a photo of the prisoner who almost became President of the United States: young Lieutenant John McCain. I have to hand it to McCain, he could have very easily died here in captivity, but he looks strong in this picture. If they were attempting to get McCain’s photo to look like a gloomy mugshot, they failed completely. Blonde and unshaven, he looks serious, even defiant. He looks more like a college linebacker than a prisoner. A display case contains what it claims is McCain’s flight suit, but this is unproven with the name patch removed.

Leaving the prison, I return to the same neighborhood on a later day. Entering an impressive high rise, I find a modern café on the ground floor. Buying a juice, I grab a seat, and take advantage of their free internet. Out in the lobby, a pair of pretty Vietnamese ladies hand out fliers to promote cell phones. Men wearing suits and ties catch the elevator, on their way to business meetings. It’s a picture of thriving capitalism, and it all happens to be located on land that was once part of the Hoa Lo prison.

As capitalism in Vietnam took off in the 1990’s, the government realized that this big former prison was located on very valuable downtown land. So the majority of the prison was torn down, and two modern buildings named the ‘Hanoi Towers’ were constructed in their place. Only one wing of the former Hoa Lo prison still remains, and it’s now the museum.

Ex-POW Capt Peterson later became ambassador to Vietnam!

Where once there were old brick cells and prison turf, there is now a towering building full of office space and retail. It doesn’t seem possible, but on the very same land where John McCain’s dirty prison cell once stood, you can now rent a serviced apartment in a 25 story building, starting at  $3000 per month! It’s an outrageous price for such a poor country, but at least it’s progress. To replace a dark, dilapidated old prison with two new commercial buildings, makes for excellent progress anywhere.

More important than what happened to those prison buildings, is what happened to the men who survived here. One of those POWs, Air Force Capt. Pete Peterson later joined the State Department. After diplomatic relations were re-established in the 1990s, this former prisoner of the Hanoi Hilton returned to Hanoi. He was America’s first Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

For John McCain, it may have been the twisted turn of events and injuries that he survived in Hanoi, that brought him to politics. If his high speed ejection and subsequent abuse had not caused him permanent injuries, he may have remained a naval officer for life like his father before him. But since he could no longer be a pilot and was left partially disabled, McCain later left the Navy and entered politics where he remains today. Despite the torture and mistreatment he endured here, McCain has admirably not held a grudge against Vietnam. As a US Senator, he supported improved relations, and he voted in favor of normalizing diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

Over the years Senator McCain returned to Vietnam repeatedly, and these days, he advocates improved military relations. He most recently returned in 2009, when he again toured the Hoa Lo prison, accompanied by two other US Senators. Before leaving the place where he almost lost his life, he signed the museum’s guestbook. His message: “Best wishes.”

 

Old prison in foreground, new high rise beyond

Young ladies promote mobile phones on former prison property, now a commercial center