An Intense Documentary

Yesterday morning, we had a great time at the Royal University of Phnom Penh as we met with a couple of faculty members, one being a Maryknoll nun and the other an Aussie volunteer. The nun gave us a quick history lesson of the complicated politics in Cambodia and foreign involvement. She talked very straight from the hip and reminded me of an iconic nun figure. She was interesting to listen to and simplified the history for our group. One of her comments was that in the span of 60 years almost every political philosophy has been present at some point in this country. As a result, this has produced a lot of cynicism from the people towards the government. In my village stay, I immensely sensed this in my many conversations with the villagers and with my host, Kosal. In private conversations (they are reluctant to speak in front of too many people about politics), they consistently commented on their lack of faith and confidence in the government. I realize Americans complain about our government, but we can wake up every day assured that our roads are paved, our water is clean (unless you live in Atlanta!), traffic lights are working, etc. However, the people in Cambodia do not wake up every day with confidence that will be the case in their lives. Also, with such an extreme political patronage system (which is a nice way to described corruption); they do not trust or feel any power in the situation. They seemed resigned to accept the situation, which is understandable considering their history of political instability.

After our meeting with the two university faculty members, university student joined us as we watched a movie together called, “Deacon of Death: Looking for Justice in Cambodia.” It was about a lady (Sok Chea) who revisits her village and a Mr. Karoby, who she feels murdered many people or ordered the murder of many of her villagers during the Khmer Rouge era. The movie is about her getting the courage to go back and confront him about his actions. We are having dinner with Sok Chea, the “star” of the documentary, tonight! We then had a discussion with the university students about the movie and got their perspective on the movie and the Khmer Rouge Trials coming up. We then had lunch with the students. Their English was not great, but we could communicate fairly well.

Today, we are visiting Tuol Sleng which was a high school that the Khmer Rouge converted into a prison during their regime. It is estimated that over 14,000 people came through the prison and only 7 survived their stay. One of the survivors, who is an artist, is meeting us there at 8:30 to talk to us. It should be exciting as he paints scenes from his stay there of the torture and killings that went on in the prison. He was on the front page of the paper this morning because he spoke out against the delays and complications the ECCC (Khmer Rouge Trials) were having. We are very lucky to have an audience with him.

After visiting Tuol Sleng, we are headed to the “Killing Fields” to see where many of the executed were buried by the Khmer Rouge.

I will try to post more about my home stay (days 3, 4, and 5) later today.