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Published: April 3rd 2006
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Killing Fields
More than 8000 skulls arranged by sex and age Phnom Penh Is another bustling city which is more Delhi than Kuala Lumpur, but if you have the opportunity head for some of the guest Houses situated by the Lakes as they have wonderful views and a far more relaxed atmosphere away from the noise and dust of the city centre.
Walking is a good way to see the city as its not too big and is easy to navigate around, it also gives you a better sense of the place in its entirety rather than heading from tourist site to tourist site.
Tuol Sleng The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum or S-21 as its more commonly known, and the Killing fields. This is more about the sites ive seen than what ive been up to as it will be something to reflect on when I return. Walking into S-21, formerly a High School, the only thing that gives away its dark past when entering this typical school is the barbwire fence that surrounds the compound.
Heading towards the cells or classrooms on the left wing you see a standard Iron bed no mattress, iron fetters and an ammunition box which in itself is not to striking. Mounted to the
Killing Fields of Choeung Ek
Female Kumpuchean 15-20 Years Old wall above the bed you see a black and white photograph taken by the Vietnamese photographers after the taking of Phnom Penh in January 1979. Drawn to the site by the smell of decaying bodies there they found around seven bodies strapped to the beds their throats cut, the blood clearly visible in the photos, a different image being hung in each of the rooms along the lower deck.
Over four years Saloth Sar (Pol Pot) killed a quarter of his people, 30 times the population of Jersey, totaling around three million while somehow managing to stay on the United Nations Committee. 14,000 of these went through S-21, only seven came out alive. Men women and children were subjected to interrogation and torture and finally put to death in order to cleanse the country of its perceived political dissidents.
The next block contained the photographs of prisoners as they came to S-21. Staring at the many faces, some of them seem numb others have a deep fear in their eyes and only a small few look bitter or angry. The other block contained hastily built cells of brick, with barbed wire over the balconies to stop suicides and on
the second floor sturdier wooden cells for political prisoners.
The top floor contained rooms for holding up to thirty prisoners all shackled together on opposite sides of the Iron bar so there was room to sleep. They called this period in Cambodia’s history Year Zero, when for the people and Country of Cambodia time literally stopped, a total system of control created through terror.
Killing Fields The killing fields of Chong Euk was the place where the prisoners from S-21 and other sites were brought to be executed, mainly by blows to the head with sharp or blunt implements and then their bodies thrown into mass graves containing hundreds of bodies.
When they found this sight, they took the skulls from the graves and created a Stupa monument containing the skulls of 8,000 women, men and children of all ages. Some of the skulls you can actually see the way they died, the damage of impacted blows to the head, so they could save bullets.
Coming away from it I'm glad i saw it all and am currently reading all about it, as to be honest I didn't have a clue before, which is quite surprising as
Killing Fields of Choeung Ek
Human remains in front of Memorial Stupa its so important to the History and development of man and shows the capabilities of man at its most evil.
Next I'm heading down South to chill round the beaches, swim and read all my new books.
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Thomas
non-member comment
Its a good one
impressive pictures and stories.