Choeung Ek - The Killing Fields

Our first day in Phnom Penh was somber. A local tour guide, Ran, met us in the morning to take us to Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre. He shared his personal experiences during the Pol Pot regime - losing his siblings and working the fields under the threat of Khmer Rouge soldiers as a young boy. 

A brief history of the Pol Pot Regime and genocide:

• 1940s sees the rise of the Cambodian communist party in the wake of French colonization. 
• Salot Sar, Pol Pot's real name, was born into a successful farming family. He went to Paris on a scholarship to study electronics where he joined the communist party. Upon his return to Cambodia in 1953, he slowly became the leader of the communist party. He believed in an extreme agrarian version of Marxism-Leninism - desiring Cambodia become a completely rural agrarian Socialist society. His chosen name, Pol Pot, was short for Political Potential.
• King Norodom Sihanouk names his communist opponents the “Khmer Rouge" in the 1960s. Their official name was the Communist Party of Kampuchea.
• 1968 marks the official launch of the Khmer Rouge uprising. 
• March 1970 sees the beginning of the Cambodian civil war. Supported by America, Marshal Lon Nol held a coup and replaces Prince Sihanouk as head of state.
• By 1973 the Khmer Rouge have gained supporters and control most of Cambodia. They were seen as fighting for Cambodian independence and freedom against foreign occupancy. 
• In April 1975, the communist Khmer Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh. 
• People were celebrating and cheering in the streets for the liberation of Cambodia. 
• Less than 3 hours later, the Khmer Rouge began the mass evacuation of the major cities, promising people it would be a short absence and they were looking for opposition forces
• The evacuated people were forced to work in agrarian labour camps in the countryside where millions died of starvation and disease or were murdered by the soldiers. 
• In 1977 clashes began between Cambodia and Vietnam. The communist Vietnamese army fighting the Khmer Rouge was supported by a Cambodian resistance group called the National Front for the Salvation of Kampuchea. 
• A December 1978 invasion by the Vietnamese army drove the Khmer Rouge into the countryside and began a 10-year occupation and and 13 years of civil war. 
• The United Nations recognized the Khmer Rouge as the only legitimate representative of Cambodia from 1979-1990 despite knowledge of the genocide. 
• 1982 the Khmer Rouge formed the Triparty Coalition Government. And Vietnam helped to create the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), which governed Cambodia for a decade.
• 1990 Vietnamese troops withdraw from Cambodia. 
• The 1991 Paris Peace Accord mandated a ceasefire and democratic elections. 
• UN sponsored elections took place in 1993. Khmer Rouge boycotted the election and refused to demobilize their forces. A new government called the Royal Government of Cambodia is elected. 
• Factional fighting in 1997 ended the first coalition government but a second round of elections were held in 1998. 
• Pol Pot dies. He was never tried, imprisoned or held accountable for his crimes. Other senior Khmer Rouge leaders flee the country. 
• The remaining Khmer Rouge factions surrendered in 1999. All remaining Khmer Rouge leaders defect to the Royal Government of Cambodia. 
• In an effort to restore peace and stability, many senior Khmer Rouge leaders were given prominent roles in the new government - including the current Prime Minister - and threaten the return of the Khmer Rouge regime if they lose power.
• Very few (5) of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders have been tried or are awaiting trial for crimes against humanity by a hybrid UN-Cambodian tribunal. 
• Elections in 2003 were relatively peaceful and have been since. However, voting and the government can be quite corrupt.

In 1975, the population of Cambodia was 7 million. By 1979, the population was 4 million. Nearly 2 million people died as a result of genocide while more than 1 million died of disease and starvation during forced agrarian labour. The population is now very young (50% under 17) and education is a struggle. 

Choeung Ek is the most well known of more than 300 discovered killing fields throughout Cambodia. Prior to being used as a killing field, Choeung Ek was a Chinese traditional graveyard.

Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. 

Warning: The information below is disturbing and graphic. I believe it is important to know about these crimes against humanity and there is an obligation to learn from history to understand the present and try to prevent these acts in the future. It was a dark and transformative time in Cambodian history which is still affecting the country and its people today. My aim is not to sensationalize, but relay facts that are sensational and horrible in nature. 

One of the greatest fears and perceived threats to Pol Pot's so called Democratic Kampuchea regime was educated people. It was a prime mandate to identify and eliminate people with an education. All educated people were sought out for "good jobs" with Angkar (the organization). They were taken to "reeducation centres" (prison) and tortured for information on their families and other educated people, then transported to a "new house" (killing fields). 

There were three common indicators the Khmer Rouge forces used to find educated people:

1. Glasses - glasses are commonly needed to read and write
2. Palms - if your hands were smooth, you likely did not have a manual labour job 
3. Skin colour - lighter skin was a sign of indoor or office work whereas dark skin proved you laboured in the sun

Not only educated people were murdered in the killing fields, but they were a specific and primary target of the genocide. 

Firstly, our guide explained that the killing fields were a tightly kept secret. As it was mainly those coming from the reeducation centres to be executed, only the prison guards, drivers, and executioners knew about the mass murders. The killing fields were often in or on the edge of populated areas, so everything was covert and concealed. Not even those working the killing fields were safe. There is a mass grave of headless bodies in Choeung Ek - prison guards that were perceived to know or say too much. 

Secondly, the transport and processing of people going to their "new home". Prisoners were always transported and executed at night to not arose suspicion from nearby residents. They were loaded into covered trucks, blindfolded and with their hands and legs bound. Some were forced to dig their own grave. If there was not enough time to kill all the people in one night, they would be kept in a small, windowless room called Dark and Gloomy Detention until more executioners arrived or until the following night. 

Thirdly, we learned about execution methods. As bullets were costly, all those murdered in the killing fields were bludgeoned, beaten, hung or bled to death. Weapons included pipes, axes, knives, hammers, picks, and razor sharp sugar palm leaves - to hack through the throats of unconscious but live victims. All of these traumas are visible on the skeletal remains of the victims. 

Lye was then poured on the bodies to cover the smell and dissolve the remains. They were attempting to hide the odour from nearby residents and the relatively nearby international embassies. A grave would not be covered until it was full. 

Some victims were hung from the larger trees in the field. To cover the sounds of their suffering, the Khmer Rouge would blast propaganda on loudspeakers in the trees. 

The first of the mass graves was excavated in 1979 and the secret horrors revealed. 129 mass graves were found, 86 of which were excavated. 8,985 corpses were exhumed. The largest mass grave was a grave containing 450 corpses. Not all the graves have or will be excavated. Skeletal remains and remnants of clothing continuously emerge after heavy rains. 

While the lives and deaths of male prisoners were unimaginable, women arguably suffered more. Women were commonly repeatedly raped by multiple soldiers. Often in front of their children. 

There was a saying in the regime: You must pull the tree from the roots. In other words the children and babies of educated people and prisoners were not to be spared. Babies were beaten to death in front of their mothers on the larger tree trunks in the killing fields. Or the smaller babies were thrown in the air to land impaled on bamboo spikes. 

In the centre of Choeung Ek is a memorial stupa containing hundreds of excavated remains. In Buddhist belief, the whole body must be together in order for the deceased to reincarnate. Without the whole body, the spirit is not at rest. 

Thousands of visitors, locals, and students come to killing fields to pray and make offerings for the victims to be whole and find peace. 

There are many stories from survivors that relate the experience far more eloquently than I ever could. I recommend the following for a truer understand of life during the genocide. 

• When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up under the Khmer Rouge by Chanrithy Him
• First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung