The Killing Fields

Yesterday's  trip to the Killing Field (The Choeung EK Genocidal Centre) and the Genocide Museum, Tuol Sleng (former office S21) were truly harrowing and will haunt me for the rest of my days.

I have not taken any photographs as a mark of respect to the people who were inhumanly incarcerated and barbarically murdered; these places are memorials, not tourist attractions.

When entering the Genocidal Centre the overwhelming feelings were of peace and reverence; people are silent or speak in low tones and whispers. The killing field is now a memorial garden and visitors are given an audio on arrival to act as their guide, I have found the transcript on the Internet and would encourage you to read it (although it is long) as it tells the story much better than I could and it may give a better sense of the experience. Google 'full text of killing fields audio'

The Memorial Stupa is at the centre of the gardens and the most prominent structure. Visitors are encouraged to pay their respects by offering a flower, incense and possibly a prayer if they believe in a higher being. The Stupa is made from the 5000 skulls of unidentified victims found in one of the many mass graves and the ragged remains of their clothes. Close up the traumas can be seen, few have bullet holes as they were expensive and the Khmer Rouge did not want to waste them. Death was usually caused by bludgeoning and the stark horrors can be seen in every missing skull fragment and fracture. I have found a link for you to see...

 Memorial Stupa

I have never been so close to the remains of human beings who have died within my lifetime and under such pointless, savage and cruel circumstances. Victims were the intellectuals of society, teachers, doctors, lawyers. To wear glasses or have soft hands was enough to warrant a death sentence. In 1975 I was four years old, my father a lawyer, my mother a teacher. It is only an accident of birth and geography that kept me and my family from such horrors. A sobering thought that has left me deeply moved.

From Choeung EK we travelled to S21, a Khmer Rouge prison designed for detention, interrogation, torture and confession. After confession prisoners were driven to the killing field for extermination. The prison was based in an old school formerly known as Tuol Sleng, Pol Pot had banned education as well as commerce and religion and so these building went to other uses.

The Khmer Rouge were meticulous record keepers and the photographs of all prisoners who passed through S21 are now on display and stare hauntingly with wide and vacant eyes. Many were children who have disappeared without trace. When the prison was liberated in 1979 there were only 7 survivors, they had kept their lives due to having a skill valued by the Khmer Rouge such as mending machinery or being able to paint. A quote from Pol Pot goes something like this...'to kill you is no loss and no gain'.

And finally, do you know that after almost 40 years nobody has been held accountable for these atrocities and hearings only started in 2005? Pol Pot died of natural causes as an old man in 1998. Why? Well there was no UN backing, in fact the Khmer Rouge still received funding from the west after they had fled.  The Cambodian rebels who fought against the regime were supported by the Vietnamese so I guess you can work it out...in my opinion that in itself is a crime against humanity.