The Khmer Rouge

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We decided to look into the very sad history of Cambodia. Soon after the Vietnam war ended and the idea of communism was spreading, a party developed in Cambodia called the Khmer Rouge. In most part, they were a dictatorship run by a man named Pol Pot.

In the mid 70's the Khmer Rouge marched into Pnom Penh to overthrow the cambodian government. The khmer rouge had extreeme ideas that Cambodia should be operated without any external influences/evils- having everyone work in farming to feed themselves and live a pure life. This resulted in the persecution of millions of cambodian who had developed western lifestyles or didn't have pure cambodian ancestry. Anyone with a proper education was seen as a threat. Woman, children, doctors, teachers, governemnt workers, and foreigners were marched into camps in the country side where they were tortured, overworked, and starved. Many of these people were sent to prisons much like the concentration camps in WWII. At these camps, the prisoners would await death in the killing fields outside of Pnom Penh. The Khmer rouge would not use bullets to kill all of these inocent people as they were too expensive - instead they would be blugeoned to death by farming tools and then thrown into mass graves.

The Khmer Rouged killed over 2 million cambodians, more than a quarter of its population at the time. They were so fearful that many of their soldiers pretended to be faithful just so they would not be killed. Towards the end of their reign, many children were enlisted in the army due to a shortage of men. These children were trained with weapons - and many of them killed.

As we learned about the history of the Khmer Rouge and its evil reign over cambodia, we wanted to see the killing fields and the prisons that have been preserved since the Khmer Rouge was overthrown in the late 70's.

First we went to see the killing fields. There were 9000 bodies found here in 1980. We saw about 15 mass graves that had been uncovered, and the area of many more mass graves that have never been touched. Many of the graves had only naked female and juvenile bodies - others had no skulls. The center of the fields had a very tall display case with thousands of skulls and some of the clothes that were found with the bodies. It is unbelievable how human beings could be so evil - just 25 years ago.

After the killing fields, we went to see the S-21 prison where people were detained before being sent to the killing fields. S-21 used to be a high school in Pnom Penh, but was turned into a prison. The class rooms became cells packed full of starving innocent people shackled to eachother, the playing fields turned into graves or torture devices, and the school boundry was turned into a barb wire fence.

We were able to walk through all of the prison cells, many of which had rows upon rows of pictures of all the prisoners that were detained in S21. Display cases showed many of the torture devices and methods of the Khmer Rouge - it was absolutley sickening.

I'd like to reccomend a book called "First they killed my father". It is authored by a woman who survived the Khmer Rouge when she was a little girl. I think it is important for everyone to know what happened in cambodia, as I had never heard of this genocide before. The leader of the Khmer Rouge was never arrested or convicted- he died of a natural death just a few years ago.

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Photos

In the Killing Fields
There were thousands of skulls stacked on top of eachother.

Take a chance to read this
It's the story of the Khmer Rouge devestation

Road to genocide
This is the road that prisoners were marched down on the way to the killing fields. We decided to get off of our Tuk Tuk and walk the same road.

Mass Graves
Notice all of the depressions still left in the ground from 1980.

Mass Graves
sign says "mass grave of 450 victims"

Mass Graves
This grave was full of childrens remains

S-21 prison
Once a school, turned into a prison.

S-21 prison
Mug shots of prisoners. Found at S-21 prison in 1980.

S-21 prison
Jail cell

S-21 prison
A bed still left in this holding cell. At these cells, people were isolated and questioned (often tortured for the truth). The Khmer Rouge were trying to find others who should be sent to their genocide prisons.

Comments

[margherita]

info cambodia
hi i'm italian and i'ma going to visit cambodia on next november.hi took a quick look to your blog about the killing fields and s-21, i'm interested for some info about them, where, when i can visit etc.please contact me at [e-mail] or www.margherappy.splinder.com, thanks a lot, bye!!