A tale of two countries

One cannot identify the persons from the human skulls on display in the Genocide Museum in Phenom Penh, whether they were Khmers or Bangalis and it was natural that the skulls evoked horrible memories of 1971 in the minds of the Bangladeshi visitors.
Though the skulls were testifying the brutalities of Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, the members of the entourage of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina became emotional to find the similarities between Phenom Penh museum and the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka which enlivens the tales of the brutalities of Pakistan army and their local collaborators.
Photographs of their gruesome deaths are on display in the rooms of the Tuol Sleng Museum, where their decomposing corpses were found. Their graves are close to the courtyard.
"We, the both countries, have the commonalities in our spirits, the history of genocides tell us. There is a bondage. We the Bangalies are victims of the worst brutality as the Khemres," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said after visiting the museum in Phonm Phen on Sunday. "Unfortunately we were not allowed to tell about our history for a long time, for the anti-Liberation forces grabbed the state power after slaying the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman," she said while speaking a dinner party arranged on her honour.
Pointing out the Unesco recognition of the March 7 Speech of Bangabandhu, she said, the people of Bangladesh have been honoured for such a big recognition.
The Prime Minister regretted that after 15th August 1975, this historic speech was banned on Radio and Television as well as in other public functions and the following governments distorted history of Liberation War.  A generation has grown up learning distorted history as they could not know the real success stories of the victorious nations, she said. Hasina, however, expressed satisfaction that her government has now been able to protect the nation from distortion of the history of the country's great Liberation War.
"They had distorted the history. They had forbidden it. They had forbidden the historic 7th March speech of Bangabandhu, which ultimately have got recognition from the Unesco. Now we need to build up a museum like this one," she said.
The Prime Minister went round different sections of the museum and witnessed the evidence of the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime. Bangabandhu's younger daughter Sheikh Rehana and other members of  entourage of the Prime Minister were present. Director of the museum Chhay Visoth briefed them about different aspects of the museum.
The museum is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. It is situated at the heart of Phnom Penh chronicling the Cambodian genocide.
Tuol Sleng means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "Strychnine Hill". Tuol Sleng was just one of at least 150 execution centers established by the Khmer Rouge.
The Prime Minister signed the visitors' book and handed some books on the history of Bangladesh's independence to the museum authorities. During Bangladesh's Liberation War in 1971, the Pakistani forces and their local collaborators also conducted genocide. Bangladesh is seeking global recognition of the crime against humanity. Sheikh Rehana, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Chief Coordinator for SDG affairs in PMO Abul Kalam Azad, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Executive Chairman Kazi M Aminul Islam and Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul also accompanied the Prime Minister.