Shooting Range and Killing Fields

Okay this post is probably going to sound quite two faced and I'm not quite sure how to write this one.

Today we met up with a chap called Mr James who had offered to take us any where we wanted around Phnom Phen . We decided to go to a shooting range and then to the Killing Fields, in my eyes it seems wrong to go and shoot a gun and then go to a place where thousands of people were brutally slaughtered. Overall I did enjoy my experience at the shooting range, I've never shot a gun before and will probably never do so again. I chose an M16 and shot 20 rounds. I managed to hit a coconut I bought for $1 on my second shot and then managed 3 head shots, neck shot and a few on the torso of a paper target. This is what felt really wrong as I was quite pleased where I managed to hit my target. Maybe it was the adrenalin rush of shooting a gun and the kick that the gun gave you when you pulled the trigger. For me the whole experience felt surreal hopefully I'll never have the chance to do anything like that again.

After the shooting range we drove out to the killing fields, visiting this pace was just as emotional as going to S-21 (the genocide museum). When you first enter you are given an audio tape and map, the audio tape gives you eye witness stories and tells you about events that happened at the killing fields. I found my whole time at the killing fields upsetting, around the grounds you can still see clothing and bones working their way to the surface, this happens because after the rainy season the soil moves and items work their way to the surface. Every month the ground keepers walk around and collect the fragments and keep them all together, I found this amazing it shows such respect and dignity for the people who died here.

It's so hard to understand why Pol Pot made his way to power and was able to commit such acts. People who were brought to the fields were blugoned to death with hammers, bamboo sticks, pick axes or just about anything that would heavy enough to kill you. I found out that when the Vietnamese took over and managed to remove Pol Pot from power countries such as Britain, USA and Germany still recognised Pol Pot as the true leader of Cambodia and allowed him to keep his chair with the United nations. This is totally wrong, countries such as the USA and Britain especially should have stepped in sooner and tried to stop what happened, when I heard this I felt ashamed to be British.

I walked around the grounds pretty much feeling depressed, there was nothing really to smile about apart from the noise of children's laughter from a school that has been built nearby. I think building a school near this place is a good idea, the sound of joy and laughter form the kids playing did help lift my spirits a bit. One part of the killing fields that really did upset me was the killing tree, the soldiers at the fields would take the young children from their mothers and then smash their heads against the tree until they were dead, they would then kill the mothers and throw their bodies into a mass grave. I can't imagine how the whole scene would have looked or how anyone could hurt an infant in such a manner.

The centre piece of the fields is a building where all of the bones that have been dug up have been stored together, this has been done out of respect for the dead and is massive memorial. Lloyd and I bought some flowers and an incense stick each and placed them outside of the building before entering. The sight of all of the skulls piled up will be something that I will never forget and it's something everyone should see, we didn't spend too long there but I was glad I was able to go and pay my respects.

I didn't take any photos here as far as I'm concerned the whole place is a grave not a tourist attraction, it's a place where you should go and learn about the horrors that happened and pay your respects to those that died there. If you ever go to Cambodia please visit this place, learn and see for yourself  what happened it does demonstrate how short and how fragile human life is. It did make me think that you should live like every second could be your last, respect other people and thank God that you will probably never have to experience anything like what happened here.