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In this week’s blog, following Holocaust Memorial Day, Danny Sweeney reflects on his encounter with a place where genocide took place.  photo by Evgeny Nelmin.

Over a decade ago I visited Tuol Sleng; the secondary school which during the Khmer genocide became S-21; the infamous prison and torture centre of the Khmer Rouge as they forced men and women to provide more and more names to be detained as they slaughtered up to a third of the population in an attempt to reset history to ‘Year Zero’. At the time I was a teacher in China and was enjoying our Lunar New Year holiday backpacking in Cambodia and Vietnam. It was an amazing trip, but it is the afternoon I spent facing the worst of human history which I still remember now.

For a place of such horror Tuol Sleng sits unremarkable, in an average neighbourhood. It sits on the east side of a city block in a neat grid system of streets not far from the Mekong, and the parks and pagodas surrounding the Royal Palace.

What sticks in my memory is the change that happened when I stepped through the gates. The sunny afternoon was a blessed respite from the months of frozen north Chinese winter from which we had just escaped. 

It became harsh and oppressive.

The soundtrack of Phnom Penh; the two-stroke engines of tuk-tuks died at the pavement, and a cruel silence pervaded around the site. These memories always come back to me each year as our visit came late in January the same time that Cambodia along with other genocides are commemorated.

I believe that Holocaust Memorial Day is important; a time when we remember the victims and must confront the worst of our human history.

27th January marks the date in 1945 when Auschwitz was liberated, and the full extent and true horrors of the Nazi extermination programme against Jewish, Roma, and Sinti peoples, along with socialists, trade unionists and the LGBT+ communities began to be known.

“Never again” has become the broken promise of the world. The Holocaust Memorial Trust records that since 1945 along with Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur have all experienced genocide with the world watching on. 

Unlike many of the Nazi sites where attempts were made to cover up evidence Tuol Sleng remains ‘as it was’; toward the end the Khmer Rouge had turned on themselves, and the Viet forces found the centre following the scent of rotting bodies. The pictures of some of those who were tortured within those walls are displayed on the third floor in old classrooms. They include those identified as KR cadres who fell foul to the horrors they had helped build. Piles of shoes and clothes rotted to rags remain in the stairwells, and chains and bedframes used for interrogation remain.

The oppressive silence which I felt sits in Tuol Sleng as a scar on time. The presence of memorials, students, and tourists doing nothing to break the hold of the interrogators, or the cries of the victims over 40 years later. These scars on humanity in Phnom Penh, Auschwitz, Srebrenica, Al-Fashir, and Kigali keep hearing the cry ‘Never Again’. This year we know the Rohingya remain exiled in Bangladesh, and the Uyghur in concentration camps in Xinjiang. But still… Never Again! 

Margaret McCall, member of St Margaret’s Justice & Peace Group in Lochgilphead, Argyll & the Isles, suggests ‘My lambs’ are not being fairly fed. Weekly blog.

Recently I felt moved to write to Jacob Rees-Mogg to see how he could reconcile presenting himself as a man of faith with his support for a government demonstrably lacking in charity. He professes to be a Catholic, a member of a church based on charity.

 I drew his attention first of all to the rise in requests for donations to food banks. All churches and many supermarkets have corners where food can be donated. I asked if he had never stopped to wonder why there are so many.

Next, I spoke of UNICEF donating to feed children in London. Did our man of faith ask why UNICEF thought this was necessary? No - he castigated them, saying that this organisation ought to be concentrating on helping children in war-torn and famine-stricken areas. This, I wrote, from someone who supports a government that has decided to cut foreign aid.

 I mentioned some quotes from the bible - Corinthians 13.2: "I may have all the faith needed to move mountains, but if I have no love, I am nothing"; and John 21 15-17: "Lord you know that I love You", and the reply " Feed my lambs."

In this respect, we have seen questionable responses. “Feed my lambs”? Yes, but give them the minimum and let companies squeeze a profit where possible. Social media has featured pictures of the disappointing food parcels given to children during lockdown. The government and the prime minister rushed to condemn these as disgraceful. But on January 13th at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, read out from the government's own guidance on school meals:

: one loaf of bread
: two baking potatoes
: block of cheese
: baked beans
: three yoghurts
: tin of sweetcorn
: packet of ham
: bottle of milk

This supposedly constitutes a week's food for a child. The food parcels were variants of this - some with even worse content.

There is some debate about the cost of these parcels, but a £15 pound figure seems the most likely – in which case only food of epicurean standards should be included.

My grandchildren have dietary requirements - one has a severe egg allergy, the other is autistic, which greatly affects food choices. Supermarket vouchers would mean parents could choose what they know their children can eat. And no packaging and delivery costs!

Where is the justice here? Meagre food parcels for children while Members of Parliament have subsidised meals; a COVID crisis in which many suffer both in health and in income, while companies make huge profits from providing essential supplies which on more than one occasion have proved not to be fit for purpose. 

This is not my idea of a man of faith. This is someone who brings shame to the religion he professes to follow. Shame on you Mr Rees-Mogg: when will Justice and Peace prevail?

PS: I have had no response from Mr Rees Mogg.

Arthur West, Member of Don’t Bank on the Bomb Network Scotland and Scottish CND Trade Union Network, reflects on the new ‘no nukes’ treaty. 

Today, a new United Nations treaty enters into force.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons makes nuclear weapons illegal in the countries that sign it, and it officially becomes international law today.

In specific terms the Treaty prohibits the development, testing, production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons. 

As I write this article, 51 countries have ratified the Treaty and another 86 have signed it. Sadly, the British government has refused to even participate in the treaty talks and insists it will never sign the Treaty.

Despite that unhelpful attitude, I think the Treaty gives peace activists like myself a reason to be cheerful. I firmly believe that the Treaty will change international attitudes to nuclear weapons.

There is evidence that previous treaties to prohibit chemical and biological weapons have helped stigmatise them in the minds of the public. I resolutely believe that this latest Treaty will have a similar effect on public perceptions of nuclear weapons.

I have had many conversations down the years with people who have said they want to get rid of nuclear weapons from our country and our world. However, they then go to say that they support multilateral disarmament rather than the unilateral view taken by Scottish CND.

But today there is a challenge to people who take this view. They can now support and raise awareness of a Treaty that is a multilateral and multinational effort to rid our world and our country of nuclear weapons.

I am a member of the Don’t Bank on the Bomb Scotland Network. The Network is involved in pressuring banks and financial institutions to move away from investments in companies involved in nuclear weapons production and development.

The passing of the Treaty will mean that the Network can now pressurise the likes of Nat West Bank to consider whether they really want to ignore a United Nations Treaty and continue financially supporting companies involved in the deadly world of nuclear weapons.

For me, it goes without saying that the job of the Scottish Peace Movement is to use this ground breaking Treaty as a campaigning resource to help us rid our country and our world of the scourge of nuclear weapons.

Our priority should be to build on the Treaty and redouble our efforts to make people aware of the environmental, financial and safety costs of nuclear weapons.

Nobody has put it better than Rebecca Johnson, Vice President of CND, who welcomed the Treaty when she said:

“If we don’t want nuclear weapons to be used, we have to persuade our government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and work for its full implementation.”

In the aftermath of the COVID crisis, I think increasing numbers of people will agree that money spent on nuclear weapons could be better spent on the NHS and decent care services for our elderly and vulnerable.

There is now an opportunity for the Westminster Government to take a lead by halting replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system and using our technical, legal and diplomatic skills to build a more peaceful and stable world.