The Killing Fields of Cambodia

Skulls of Khmer Rouge victims in Buddhist Stupa at Cheon Ek

 I recently had the opportunity to visit the Killing Fields at Cheong Ek which is located about 17 KM from the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.  Cheong Ek is a memorial honoring approximately two million people killed during the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.  The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, were in control of Cambodia from April 1975 until January 1979.  Roughly speaking, the Khmer Rouge (translated as the Red Khmers) took over Cambodia and forced its population to move out of urban centers into the countryside where the masses were to live in camps under a communist agrarian system.  Not only did the Maoist agrarian adventure fail royally resulting in a severe famine, Pol Pot's regime systematically detained and executed individuals not fitting the ideal profile (students, intellectuals, former government officials, anyone who disagreed, etc).  

The term "killing field" refers to hundreds of locations throughout Cambodia the Khmer Rouge used to exterminate those who did not meet its standards.  Like the Nazi's, the Khmer Rouge also kept excellent documentation of all of the people who were detained and eventually executed.  This included detailed records of their alleged offenses and their photos.  The spouses and children of the offenders were not spared as the Khmer Rouge did not want to leave anyone who behind who would want revenge. According to the Yale University's Cambodian Genocide Project, there were 158 prisons run by Pol Pot and 309 mass grave sites containing over 19,000 grave pits.  These sites and their pits are referred to as the Killing Fields.  Much more detailed information, including access to the Khmer Rouge records are available of the Cambodian Genocide Project web site (linked below).

The depressions in the ground are empty grave pits

Cheong Ek was only one many killing fields but it has been preserved in memory of the victims.  Prisoners from the Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh were brought to this orchard on a daily basis and were then slaughtered at night.  The Khmer Rouge did not waste bullets on the victims, instead they hit each individual with a blunt instrument, slit their throats, and dropped them into a grave pit.

The grave pits were wide open with trails between them

The killing field was wide open and visitors are able to wander around the site.  It did not seem like it had been sterilized in the sense that one was distant from what happened there.  In fact, in part due to the huge number of remains and in part due to the methods used to uncover the site, bones continue to surface on a daily basis (especially in the rainy season).  The bones are all treated with respect and are quickly moved to a Buddhist stupa at the location which contains all of the different bones found at the site organized by type and size.

There was one particular fenced off area at Cheong Ek that was specifically marked as a location where bones and teeth were still resurfacing.  Here some of pictures of the remains found around the memorial area.  I am not posting the pictures for shock value but more just to try to give a sense of how somber and real it feels there.

A femur on the ground

Visitors respectfully placed some femurs, teeth, a jaw, and a pair of pliers on top of one of the displays

One of the worst things I saw at Cheong Ek was a grave pit which had been filled with the bodies of over 100 naked women and babies.  When the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in early 1979 ending the Khmer Rouge genocide, the first visitors to the killing field found large amounts of blood and brain matter on a tree next to the grave pit.  According to witnesses and survivors, Khmer Rouge members killed babies by hitting them against the tree.  The tree is now adorned with ribbons and is one of the saddest places to visit at Cheong Ek.  As with every other mass killing I have thought about, it is unfathomable to even imagine being in the position of having to watch your baby being killed or to try and understand how the people who carried out the executions could have thought what they were doing was justified in any way.  Unlike ethnic cleansing that took place in Europe or Africa, there was no demonized ethnic or religious groups that needed to be exterminated.  Instead, these people were suspected of undermining a utopian communist agricultural scheme.

Visitors moved about quietly in small groups with local guides

 There were not too many visitors at Cheong Ek and those present were a mix of Asian tourists, Cambodians, a few westerners, and school kids.  As part of the $5 admission fee, there is an outstanding audio tour in which survivors of the killing field explain what happened there and give short explanations of each area at the site.  All of the bones collected when the site was excavated in 1980 were respectfully placed in a tall Buddhist Stupa which is now located at the center of the fields.  Stupas are structures that generally contain some sort of holy relics or remains of the Buddha.  So placing the bones in a stupa is a respectful way of handling them locally.

Incense and flowers outside of the stupa

The stupa at Cheong Ek

For Additional Information:

Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University (authoritative and very detailed information on the genocide)

February 2009 Article from Time Magazine on History of Khmer Rouge