The Killing Fields

!!!!!!!!! WARNING, THIS POST MAY DISTURB SOME READERS !!!!!!!!!
Please skip it if you don't want to hear some of Cambodia's sadder history.

We visited the killing fields in Phnom Penh. These are grim reminders of the many years of civil war in Cambodia, particular the terrible years under the Khmer Rouge in which it is estimated that up to a third of the country died from 1975-1979.

The killing fields was the execution grounds of the infamous S21 prison and torture centre of the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh. Around twenty thousand people died here including one Australian. In S21, entire families were tortured until they confessed to being CIA spies or saboteurs (for eating extra rice), or anything the Khmer Rouge wanted them to confess to under torture. They were then expected to name other traitors, and usually they "denounced" everyone they knew in order to end the torture.  We visited S21 last year and it is a grim place. Thirty years on, the floors and walls of the torture rooms still display the blood that has soaked into the concrete from the countless victims of the Pol Pot regime. Once the "traitors" had given all the information they could, they were packed into trucks at 6pm, then driven 15km away to the killing fields for execution. They were blind folded, hands tied behind their back and crammed up to seventy people in the back of a truck. They were told they were going to a labour camp so no one would be unruly.

The killing fields were formerly a fruit orchard and there were six (?) Chinese graves there. Now it is the site of many mass graves. About half have been disinterred. You can see some of the open graves below.

Each grave could have up to several hundred victims inside.

Some graves have been covered with a roof to (unsuccessfully) keep out the rain.

This grave has 150 headless bodies inside. It is thought they were disloyal Khmer Rouge soldiers. Their heads may have been thrown into the lake nearby where many other bodies also lay undisturbed.

Upon arriving at the killing fields, the truck would park under a tree and the prisoners would be taken out one by one to the "dark and gloomy detention". Each person's name would be checked against a list that came with them guards from S21. The "dark and gloomy detention" was:

From the "dark and gloomy detention", prisoners were led out one by one, still blind folded and arms tied behind their backs to open graves. In order to save money on bullets, the prisoners were executed by being bludgeoned with iron bars, bamboo sticks, hoes and axes. Some may then have had their throats cut. Finally, they were pushed into the graves. When the executioners were feeling particularly nasty, they would saw the throat of a victim with palm leaves. These had nasty serrated leaves, but they were blunt and it could take over fifteen minutes to kill someone that way.

Young children and babies would often be killed by having their head beat against a tree. Our guide told us that when this tree was first discovered by Vietnamese soldiers, the bottom of the tree was stained with blood and covered with hair.

The other ways they would kill children was to throw them in the air and see if they could catch them on their bayonets. Often they would do this in front of the children's mothers.

Once the Khmer Rouge had filled a grave, they would cover it with pesticide (DDT). This would cover the smell and kill any people not yet dead in the grave.

In order to cover the noise of the victims screams, they hung a loud speaker in a tree near by.

Today, a monument to honour the dead stands at the killing fields. It is several stories high and has (I think) seventy-two shelves filled with the skulls and some bones of the victims who have been exhumed from some of the mass graves.

The monument

Looking up from inside the monument

A shelf of female skulls from girls aged 15-20.

A normal shelf. Note the bludgeoning wounds evident on many victims.

Victims' cloths which have been preserved and sit in the base of the monument.

As we walked around, you can't help but notice the many signs that you are walking on top of mass graves. We are here during rainy weather and the rains stir up many bones and clothing bringing them to the surface. We came across this tooth and (possibly?) skull as we were walking:

We also saw many clothes coming out of the ground and some femur? bones as well.

When these are found, they are often collected and stored in glass containers around the site.

These are other teeth and bones which have been found recently and have been put on top of one of these glass containers.

Before we left, we walked around the lake in which so many victims still lie uncounted. It was hard to imagine that so much pain and suffering could occur in such a peaceful place.