CHOEUNG EK AND TUOL SLENG - THE KILLING FIELDS

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“Even in this 20th century, on Kampuchean soil the clique of Pol Pot criminals had committed a heinous genocidal act. They massacred the population with atrocity in a large scale, it was more cruel than the genocidal act committed by Hitler fascists.
With the commemorative stupa in front of us, we imagine that we are hearing the grievous voice of the victims who were beaten by Pol Pot men with canes, bamboo stumps or heads of hoes, and of the ones who were stabbed with knives or swords. Imagining the horrifying scenes and the panic. Stricken faces of the people who were dying of starvation, forced labour or torture without mercy upon their skinny bodies. They died without giving the last words to their kith and kin. How much pain those victims were in when they got beaten with canes, heads of hoes and stabbed with knives or swords before their last breath went out. How bitter they were when seeing their beloved children, wives, husbands, brothers or sisters were seized and tightly bound before being taken to the mass grave! While they were waiting for their turn to come and share the same tragic result. The method of massacre which the clique of Pol Pot criminals had carried upon the innocent people of Kampuchea cannot be described fully and clearly in words because the invention of this killing method was strangely cruel, so it is difficult for us to determine who they are: they have the human form but their hearts are demonic, they have got the Khmer face but their activities are purely reactionary. They wanted to transform Kampuchean people into a group of humans without knowledge and understanding of freewill, who always bent their heads to carry out Ankar's orders blindly. They had educated and transformed young people and adolescents whose hearts are pure, gentle and modest into odious executioners who dared to kill the innocent and even their own parents, relatives or friends. They had burnt the market place, abolished monetary system, eliminated books of rules and principles of national culture, destroyed schools, hospitals, pagodas and beautiful monuments such as Angkor Wat temple which is the source of pure national pride and bears the genius, knowledge and intelligence of our nation. They were trying hard to get rid of Khmer character and transform the soil and waters of Kampuchea into a sea of blood and tears, by depriving the country of cultural infrastructure, civilization and national character. It became a desert of great destruction that overturned the Kampuchean society and drove it back to the stone age.”

From the plaque at the Choeung Ek Memorial

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