Cambodia Killing Fields

Disclaimer - the following pictures are very graphic.  This was the toughest day, March 4th,  during our whole trip...very emotionally draining.  We live such a sheltered life in Canada...we really need to appreciate our lives and lifestyle.

We will start the day with a visit to Tuol Sleng prison, or S-21, which was initially a school complex in the city of Phnom Penh. It became the main interrogation center of the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge (KR) were a radical communist militia in Cambodia in the 70's and on April 17, 1975 just 2 weeks before the fall of Saigon they marched into Phnom Penh and the terror started.

Their goal was to turn the country into a pure, self sufficient rural peasant society. To do that they had to rid the country of its urban and educated members of society. This included anybody with more than a rudimentary education.

By the time the Vietnamese invaded the country on January 7, 1979 the KR had killed over 1.7 million people, either by starvation, forced labor plus torture then execution. Also thousands died from untreated wounds and from disease; all trained medical personnel  were targeted as well.

Here are some of the Architects of the KR's genocide. Some are still alive and are doing life sentences in jail. The most well known was known as Pol Pot. He died on April 15, 1998 at age 72 and some say he never acknowledged his actions as evil but just "doing his job".

These are the burial crypts of the last 14 prisoners to be tortured then killed. The Vietnamese army was closing in and the KR was trying to eliminate all potential witnesses to their atrocities.  There were 12 survivors though, 7 adults and 5 children.

The school complex consists of at least 4 three story buildings that were divided up into smaller classrooms and dormitories. The KR built these small prison cells in one building and knocked holes through the interior walls to traverse the whole length of the building without going outside.

Barb wire netting strung up the front of this building so no one could jump from the upper floors...and possibly kill themselves.

One of the torture tools of the trade...submersing people to the point of drowning

This Norng Chan Phal, the older brother of the 2 boys in the previous picture. They were "arrested" along with their mother and were to be killed but the 2 boys hid in the pile of clothing from the recently killed prisoners. They never did find out what happened to their parents.
Norng has written a book about his experience which we did buy.

The inner courtyard..all the known names of those who came through the prison are engraved on these rock slabs....about 21,000 of them.

This is one of the adult survivors, Chum Mey, who also has written about his experience.  We bought his book also.

These 2 photos are of Choeung Ek, the killing field where most of prisoners of S-21 were taken to be killed...and where we went after our tour of S-21.

Shackles that all prisoners wore at S-21.

Another picture of the killing field. Notice the blindfolds still on the skulls and the wire used to bind wrists and elbows

Here in this picture and the ones that follow show the "Enemy" and each one has their arms wired behind their backs, usually at their elbows...and except for the 12 survivors, they all died at the prison or at the killing field.

Not only Cambodians were killed. Some foreigners also became victims of the KR. Apparently some Americans were Trekking along the border of Laos and Cambodia and were grabbed.

Picture board after picture board of the soon-to-be killed. 

The floor size of one of the cells.

The KR were very efficient at recording their atrocities, these are before and after pictures.

The KR even killed their own people if they showed even the slightest "antirevolutionary" activity.

Every female had their hair cut short. They used the hair for pillow stuffing and for other things?

Both sides of these boards were filled with pictures and there were many rooms....we did not enter all of them.

Prisoners clothing...in which the 2 young brothers hid in

These are the Khmer Rouge....mostly young rural boys, some 12-13 yrs old and all brainwashed to believe they were doing the righteous thing.

This picture was taken by a KR soldier as they entered Phnom Penh. Three hours later the genocide started.

Pol Pot

This info plaque describes it well..

Building A from a different angle. The 10 ground floor rooms were the "interogation" rooms and where the last 14 prisoners were killed.

Imagine trying to get a 4 yr old child to confess that their parents spied for the CIA or for French Intelligence?

Wall mural of the liberation of S-21. One of the five children died shortly after they were liberated. Here there are only the 4 left.

Not a very clear shot but this is building A where they had tortured and killed the last 14 prisoners just before the arrival of the Vietnamese army.

The Rules that every prisoner had to know 

Torture room by day, sleeping room at night for the prison guards

Torture first then killed

Building A, 7 torture rooms on the ground floor

We could not finish going through all the various rooms, it got too depressing for us. We did meet a German couple coming out as we were first going in. We had met them on the river cruise and they were supposed to do the killing field next like us but they were both in tears and said no way were they going.

Now we have arrived at the killing field. It is about 15kms outside of Phnom Penh and the prisoners came by truck, blindfolded with their elbows wired behind their backs.

This location used to be an old Chinese cemetary turned into a militia training ground then into a mass burial ground. One of 343 known killing fields in Cambodia.

Very nice looking memorial...we were not prepared for what we saw close up.

Typical KR uniform

Baby's clothing

All those squares are burial sites in the field

This field is referred to as the international field because of the many foreigners killed here.

The KR also targeted those in the Entertainment industry

Blurb on Pol Pot

We will show what this memorial contains in a bit

They left this skeleton in situ to give an idea what the researchers encountered as they began digging.

Scattered bone fragments

Now we are seeing scattered remnants of clothing with bone fragments.

They did not want the local villagers to hear the screams as people were killed

People did try to reach this tree to eat the fallen fruit...and hopefully die before they were killed.

You can really notice the contrast between the boardwalks and the mass grave depressions.  

Broken bones and teeth

What can we say...

An old Chinese grave amongst the different dig sites...they reminded us of bomb craters of Cu Chi

450 headless bodies were buried here, mostly women and their children 

Clothing of the 450. Those purple shorts would fit a 2 yr old

The old original Chinese grave markers....disturbed by the building of mass graves.

Dig sites scattered about the field..imagine over 20,000 were killed and buried here

Clothing and bones gradually working their way to the surface

Scattered skull fragments

Chenda our guide, imagine knowing that you have family members that are possibly buried here...we heard about it in Canada...but she lived it and survived it.

The KR did not use firearms to do the killing because of the noise. They used whatever they could find, even using branches off this tree to cut people's throats.

This is what greeted us we got close to the giant stupa. Over 9,000 skulls dug up from the surrounding field...incomprehensible X 343 more killing fields.

All these skulls, 7 tiers high, belonged to the people pictured previously in our pictures of S-21 and these are only the ones excavated. The rest remain buried in land around this memorial.

We were both emotionally drained after our tours through S-21 and this killing field. Very hard to believe how humans can treat other humans like this.

We now understand how hard it was for Kevin in Saigon and now Chenda here in Cambodia to tour through these places of imprisonment, torture and death because their families were directly affected by what happened at these sites.

We were both glad to put this day to rest. Back at our hotel and down to the pool to cool off...and reflecting on what we saw that day. Then came dinner and a early night because next day we were on our way to Bangkok.