The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

Continuing the effort to get the sad posts over with, here is what I documented from the Killing Fields just outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Much like the previous post about the S21 prison in Phnom Penh, I must preface this by saying that some of the pictures and explanation below are graphic and tragic, so don’t feel pressured to continue looking.  The quick version is that the Khmer Rouge used this place to exterminate about 17,000 people who first went through  S-21 (Tuol Sleng prison) between 1975 and 1978.
The extermination camp of Choeung Ek is located about 15 km from central Phnom Penh.  It used to be a Chinese graveyard before the Khmer Rouge took over that area to dispose of people who didn’t fit into their plan for Cambodia.  Remains of thousands of people have been found in mass graves in this area.  In 1988, the Memorial Stupa was built with more than 8,000 skulls as a memorial to the victims.  I’ll allow the pictures to speak mostly for themselves.  Click here for Wikipedia’s information about the killing fields.  There was also a well-known movie called The Killing Fields made about the Khmer Rouge.  Thanks for bearing with me with these tough posts.  There are many hopeful projects and beautiful things about Cambodia to still share!

In an attempt to save bullets, they used things like trees to kill people.

Sites of some of the mass graves

There was an audio tour to listen to while walking around the area, including many survivors’ stories of the horrors that took place here.

The Memorial Stupa

The Memorial Stupa

There are more than 8000 skulls arranged by sex and age in the Memorial Stupa

In the museum, they had artifacts and information about many of the people killed by the Khmer Rouge.

These are the clothes that all prisoners and workers had to wear during the Khmer Rouge’s leadership of Cambodia.

The leader of the S-21 prison was recently convicted of his crimes.

Click here to see a video of his admittance of guilt in what happened at the prison.

Below are descriptions of sites on the land.

Discovery of a mass grave

Stay tuned for more information about the many ways the Khmer people are moving on from this horrible time

and all the great things that are happening now in Cambodia.