The Killing Fields

The following blog is a bit graphic in its description, so please read with caution.

For anyone taking a visit to Siem Reap, a quick trip to Phnom Penh is a must. If not for your own enrichment, for respect of those who died and acknowledgement of what the worst of humankind has done and still does

today.

S-21, the former Khmer Rouge security prison, was our first stop in Phnom Penh. Housed in a former high school (a concrete testament to Angkor's abhorrence of education and intellectuals), the prison remains much as it was 30 year ago. Barbed wire fences surround the make-shift prison; former classrooms are still divided into tiny bricked cells; wood-framed beds with plaited-metal surfaces alongside iron shackles...all hint at the recurrent tragedies that occurred within its walls for almost 4 years.

Outside, a wooden frame once used for student physical education stands inconspicuous to the uninformed observer. Angkor used this and the pots nearby for hanging and head dunking tortures. Though no prisoners remain, hundreds of prisoner mug shots taken upon entrance to S-21 morbidly reflect just how massive and tragic this 4-year period was. Of those not imprisoned, tortured, and executed in S-21, another fate threatened them just miles outside Phnom Penh. Barely clearing the city's limits lie hundreds of mass graves where thousands of Cambodians spent their last moments of life.

The Killing Fields stimulate all the senses with traces of what once happened. Immediately you notice a subtle yet omnipresent stench of decay. On the walk toward the mass grave sites, you must be careful where you step. Bones, teeth, tattered clothing, and other remains scatter the path. And if the immediacy of the smells and sights doesn't stir your heart, the sounds of times past will. Hanging near the holding sight where most awaited death were speakers that blared music. Music at an execution site may seems like a cruel irony. But bullets were a commodity so bludgeoning (evidenced by the hundreds of cracked skulls on display) was used as a more cost-effective method of execution. You see, the music was necessary to muffle the screams as hoes, hammers, and axe handles hit their victims.

Angkor took to heart its mantra "clearing grass, it shall dig its entire root off." Adjacent to the mass graves stands a tree where the "roots" of the family were destroyed. Soldiers would hold babies by their feet and swing the child's head at the tree. And for children not killed, they were recruited as Angkor soldiers to support the Khmer Rouge and commit these horrendous deeds.

Those who were not subjected to these philosophically-motivated atrocities had a fate of starvation and disease in the work villages of the Cambodian frontier. It was a time when no one was safe, everyone was suspect, and families were torn apart. It was a time not to be forgotten.