The Killing Fields
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2009
1
20
79
Trip End
May 07, 2009
Choeung ek, Cambodia
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
There was just a gate with the title Choeung Ek Genocide Centre. The fields were in fact the overflow from the mass graves at Toul Sleng and most of them were pits dug in the ground about 12" by 12" and about 10" deep and contained around 50 - 70 bodies.
The pits were in an orchard behind a village, and loud music was played so that the villagers could not hear the screams of the prisoners. Most of them did not know what was happening. The pits were found by the smell emitted from the bodies de-composing and the ground breaking open as the gas escaped.
We also saw larger pits of up to 300 victims.
Bones poked out from the ground as we walked around and we could see the tree by the edge of the pits where small children were beaten to death against it. The tree still had a discoloured patch where the beatings occurred.
A magnificent tower was built near to the entrance, which consists of 17 levels so dignify 17 April 1975, when Pol Pot's regime first took over.
9 levels have skulls on and the upper 7 levels have all manner of other bones. 8 of the 9 foreign journalists that were killed at Toul Sleng have been found in Choeung Ek.
Of the estimated 20,000 victims, less than half have been exhumed.
The guide also expressed the country's relief that one of the main perpetrators, Duch, the head of Toul Sleng Prison, is starting trial.
