Phnom Penh Attraction: Killing Fields



Entrance
Choeung Ek Memorial (Killing Fields). From April 1975 to January 1979, the ultra-Communist Khmer Rouge regime ( the Red Khmer or KR), headed by Saloth Sar (known as Pol Pot), controlled the whole Cambodia. During their reign, between 1 and 2 1/2 million Cambodians were killed, others died from disease, malnutrition and mistreatment. The victims were transported and dumped in one of the dozen "killing fields" scattered across the country. This particular killing field, once a orchard and a cemetery, is the site of the brutal execution of more than 17,000 men, women and children who had first suffered through interrogation, torture and deprivation in S-21 Prison (now the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum).

recovered clothing of some victims

Trucks would arrive 2 or 3 times a month or every three weeks from S-21 Prison. Each truck held 20 to 30 frightened, blindfolded and silent prisoners. When trucks arrived, the victims were led directly to be executed at the ditches and pits or were sent to be detained in the dark and gloomy prison. 


chemical storage shed

To save ammunition, the executions were often carried out using hatchets, digging hoes, shoves, shackles, hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks. The victims were then buried in mass graves. Some victims were required to dig their own graves. After the killing, the executioners scattered DDT and other chemical substances over the dead bodies of the victim. This was to eliminate suspicion from people working nearby and to ensure the death of the victims who were buried alive. 

A commemorative stupa filled with the skulls of the victims.