The Killing Fields

A short ride out of Phnom Penh is Choueng Ek, one of 300 of Cambodia's killing fields. Previously a Chinese cemetery, the Khmer Rouge turned the grounds into mass graves from 1975 through 1978. This location in particular was discovered in 1980 by the smell alone. Khmer soldiers had used DDT to hide the odor and prevent decomposition of bodies.

If I understand correctly, Phnom Penh evacuated, Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, ordered the extermination of a majority of people living in cities: the elite, the rich and the intellectuals. The idea being that all Cambodians should go back to living on the land, the city the root of evil and corruption. Foreign journalists as well were executed so that no information of what was happening would get out of Cambodia. As it was, Cambodians themselves had no idea what was happening, where they were being taken or why.

At the site, you first encounter a memorial stupa filled with skulls of many of the murdered. On the walking tour is a Boddhi tree against which soldiers are said to have swung babies by their legs to their deaths. Bodies have been exhumed from 86 of the mass graves, 43 still reamining closed. The graves three to four meters deep held 70 people. Larger ones, as many as 450 bodies.

Those executed were beaten to death with bamboo, so that no bullets would be wasted. They used bamboo as well so that no shots were heard. Music is said to have been played at the execution to mask screams. Many of the soldiers involved in the executions are reported to have felt justified. The rich and powerful had done nothing to help the poor in the country, so why would the soldiers who now had the power be merciful? The killings were in some form a revenge. As well, those who dissented would be executed themselves.

In 1978, the soldiers in the east and west split, the east wanting an end to the killing. Many fled to Vietnam for help, prompting an invasion in 1979. In total, two million died throughout the country in those five years, whether from exectuion, overwork or starvation. Criminal trials and investigations are still ongoing as of this year, the head judge claiming corruption and interference even as of this month. Our guide for the tour is probably my age. His father, a part of the elite, worked in the government in Phnom Penh and escaped with family to the countryside. So recent, any person you meet on the street has a story, the impact of which is at times hard to hear. Today we have walked hallowed ground.