Comments on: PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: REALITY CHECKS (continued…)

By: Simon Mesina

Simon Mesina — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:55:00 +0000

interesting point of view. i guess, in a way, maybe i am just too jaded to see it that way…

By: pandora

pandora — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:06:10 +0000

I would like to think that the torturers at Toul Sleng had no idea of what suffering was all about. Otherwise, they would not have even thought of hurting or killing the prisoners. I have been in a situation (and I will write about this soon) where I was instructed to be compassionate to someone else. I did not understand what the instruction meant until I was placed in the same situation as that person I had to be compassionate to.

Perhaps, the child guards and torturers at Toul Sleng did not know what it felt like to be starved or beaten. For that reason, they did not understand the consequences of their actions.

I am not trying to justify what the torturers did. It is just that I still cannot accept that it is within us (people) to be intentionally and knowingly atrocious.

By: simon mesina

simon mesina — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:26:52 +0000

thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts on this. it makes me very sad and angry. i’m always conflicted when i read or hear or see how such atrocities are committed or allowed to happen even. my first reaction is always anger, and to wish vengeance, but i know that that never solves anything or heals wounds. i was able to attend a talk by a Tutsi survivor from the Rwandan genocide. It was very moving how he said that instead of killing all the perpetrators, they were having them meet face to face with their victims, in an attempt to have healing between them. it amazed and inspired me to hear that. i can only imagine what courage they had to be able to face and forgive their oppressors that way.

By: pandora

pandora — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:46:09 +0000

After we visited Toul Sleng, I was very upset and disturbed but extremely curious to know more about the Khmer Rouge. On several occasions, I was tempted to buy the books about the Khmer Rouge that they were selling in the market like “Blood Brother Number One”. I just could not bring myself to read it then. Believe it or not, my hands even shook when I tried to pick up one of those books from the market. That was how jarred I was by the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum experience. I think I am detached enough now to be able to read a book about the Khmer Rouge. Thanks for offering to lend me “First They Killed My Brother”. I’ll take you up on this offer.

By: Toe

Toe — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:42:11 +0000

Good post Pandora! I will lend you a book, “First They Killed My Father”. Very depressing but inspiring at the same time. It’s about this girl who is my age so she was only 5 during the time of the Khmer Rouge.

I don’t know when the Cambodians would find closure with this terrible part of their history. Pol Pot is dead and the other leaders of the KR are old and dying and have not repented.