The Killing Fields (Phnom Penh)

The Killing Fields is something you really have to witness for yourself in order to begin the struggle to make sense of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime, which began in 1975 and only ended very recently. The high-up members are still till this day awaiting trial.

It's a mass grave site. It is a horrific place. It stepped on numerous skull fragments, collar bones, all just barely covered by the dust. Victims were tortured here by the most barbaric methods I've ever heard of (using banana tree branches like a saw to decapitate because it saves on bullets) and often dug their own graves before they could lie in it. Almost a quarter of the Cambodian people were killed during the regime. This and Tuol Sleng (S21) are the most horrifying and difficult places I have ever experienced being in. Stop reading now if you're squeamish or don't feel like a depressing blog entry.

There was a mass grave for infants next to a big tree that they were hit against to crack their skulls before being ditched in. There are infant bones around here. I cannot stress this enough, there are human bones everywhere. Under my shoes, a leg by a tree, a rib by some bushes, everywhere. Our guide fled Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge took over, but his parents and sister were killed here.

There is a pagoda here filled with the skulls that were found in the graves. Underneath the shelves is a heap of the clothes they wore when they were killed. This happened less than 30 years ago, it's difficult to interact with it at times. People who worked for the Khmer Rouge have now returned to villages to live amongst the people who suffered under the regime. They're in their 50s now. I find that hard to understand, how the people of this nation are just concerned with moving forward, within the same generation. I don't see forgiveness like that anywhere else in the world. It's a complicated time here in Cambodia.

Don't look at these photos if you think you'll be disturbed.

[ Killing Fields ]