CHOEUNG EK, THE KILLING FIELD - PART 1

14th AUGUST 2019 ~ Long ago, it was once a longan orchard but was then turned into a killing field, where thousands of innocent lives were taken away, during the dictatorship era of Pol Pot and his communist regime Khmer Rouge. The atmosphere of this place was sombre and quiet and it was hiding too many horror and sad stories unthinkable to a certain extend. And yet' there are a lot of lessons to be learned beyond the dark and gloomy past of Cambodia.

the ticket counter

I made my way to Choeung Ek on the second day of my stay in Phnom Penh, and it was 17 kilometres away from the city. The Grab Tuktuk cost me 20 000 Riel, about USD5. At the ticket counter, I rented the audio aid as it explained everything that took place at specific spots as I toured around the area.

I decided to stop by at the museum first which was quite near to the entrance. There was a small scale of exhibition and then, I joined a group of visitors for the video viewing session in the small auditorium in the same building. There were fans in the museum and the auditorium was air conditioned, so it was a short relief from the high temperature outside.

After the museum visit and the video viewing session, the real tour began. The landmark of this place is the stupa which I will describe in detail in my next post.

I would have to look at the numbered signs and played the audio, and then moved to the next spot by referring to the map provided.

They had discovered huge graves around the place where people were executed between 1975-1978 and their bodies were buried in mass. In some of the graves they found the remains of the bodies without heads and bones which were severely broken or cracked.

some remaining bones on the ground

There were still remains of the dead not yet exhumed. Sometimes after a heavy rain, the ground would be washed away by running water and they could find human bones left behind visible to the naked eyes.

What made it horrible was that people were not just killed but they were brutally tortured. In order to hide the activities from the villagers, those evil people would air loud sounds through the loud speakers so that the moans, screams and cries of the victims in desperation and pain would be drowned. People outside would think there were some ordinary political or military activities were going on inside the camp.

So who were the people chosen to be brutally murdered? Innocent civilians, including old folks, women, children and babies. Those who were seen as threats like the intellectuals and professionals including teachers and even people who wore spectacles were all killed because they might rebel and spread hatred against the government to others.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2

Read about my visit to the Killing Field in Siem Reap HERE.

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