Killing Fields: "Remember our past as you look to your future"

We arrived to Phnom Penh with no plans or expectations and we left with a small sense of the magnitude of evil. And with the obligation of sharing what we had learnt.

Killing Fields

We found a mid range hotel through Tripadvisor and we booked it in advance. It was exactly what we had in mind, simple but comfy and well located. I recommend it. 

We were meeting some friends in Phnom Penh that were also travelling in South East Asia, but we had no idea about what to do. We read that the capital wasn't very interesting or authentic. And we weren't very excited about our stay.

Stupa filled with over 9000 skulls 

While having breakfast in the hotel we met an American that highly recommended us the Killing Fields. Since he seemed very knowledgeable about Pnom Penh we took his advice.  

It was easy to convince Joao and Filipa that we should spend Joao's birthday in a very depressive and heartbreaking atmosphere, learning more about the Cambodian genocide. 

Finding transportation was piece of cake.  We just had to negotiate the fare with the rickshaw driver. He was very flexible since the beginning.
The Killing Fields are located in the outskirts of Phnom Penh, 22 kilometers southeast of the city. It took us about 20 minutes to arrive there. 

The plan was to go first to the Killing Fields and then to the museum (former prison). 

"The number of victims to be executed was increased up to over 300 per day"

The ticket price (around $5) includes an audio guide. At first we weren't so sure about that (we are those people that hate tours) but turns out the information was very accurate and delivered in a very reasoned way which is particularly hard under such barbaric circumstances. In fact the audio guide was a key factor to learn about not only the site but also about all situation, since the Pol Pot leadership through the last updates about of the genocide prosecution.

The audio guide is organized by areas and in each area there is a moving story to be told. 

Mass grave

The fanatical communist regime was less selective than Nazis, that prosecuted mostly Jews. Pol Pot's regime targeted intellectuals, smart people, journalists, politicians, foreigners, people wearing glasses, people looking Vietnamese, monks... Everyone could be considered a threat. Even babies.

In order to save ammunition, the executions were carried out in monstrous ways: smashing the victims heads against tree trunks or using sharpened bamboo sticks. 

Very often victims were forced to dig their own graves. 

Children were forced to watch their parents being executed before their own execution.

Brutality and evil were everywhere in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime. 

Pond at Killing Fields

A United Nations investigation reported that 2 to 3 million of people were killed from 1975 to 1979. But some researchers believe that in fact over 3 million were killed.
The Khmer Rouge also destroyed approximately 95% of the Buddhist temples in Cambodia.

Torture room at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

The genocide court is operating very slowly and is also failing in addressing all the former members of the regime as it should, due the opposition of the Cambodia government. 

Some of the former leaders died even before the court proceedings were finished. And the judges appointed by the government refuse to prosecute more Khmer Rouge's former members and they denied the victim's right to pursue justice which includes being heard by the court.

The current prime-minister was himself a supporter of the Khmer Rouge regime. Hun Sen is in power for more than 25 years now, which makes him one of the longest serving leaders in the world. 

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Pics of the victims 

The narrator's voice in the audio guide that guided us during our visit into the Killing Fields is from a survivor that fled Cambodia while a teenager, Youk Chhang. He was forced into slave labor and beaten nearly to death for stealing rice for his pregnant sister. 

This was one of the most impressive accounts and I'll never ever forget it. And it shows how brutal this regime was. 

Youk was the youngest prisoner in the prison. "There was an older guy in prison next to me, and he got scared for me, because when you run out of stories, then it’s time for execution. Every night he would beg the prison guards to release me. He would always say, please release this boy. You know, this prison is for adults. Why did you bring a boy to the prison with us? He has no idea what is going on. As of today, I have so much regret that I cannot remember his name, and I regret that I cannot locate his family members to thank them. What he did, I understand now. In order to release me, he chose to sacrifice his life. He was executed because he kept asking the prison guards to release me. I was released, you know. I was released. But at the time, when they released me, I had no idea why".

Cabinets filled with skulls

Youk Chhang returned to Cambodia as an United Nations official to manage the first Democratic elections. And he founded the Documentation Center of Cambodia whose mission is to research the Khmer Rouge era, for the purposes of memory and Justice. The center has the world's largest archive of the regime. 

Recently, Youk Chhang co-produced an awarded documentary about the environmental degradation in Cambodia, A River Changes Course. 

If you are planning to go to Phnom Penh I highly recommend a visit to the Killing Fields. I wouldn't take small children because even for adults it can be disturbing.