Phnom Penh
Choeng Ek Genocide Center
Killing Fields

Friday October 24, 2003

Choeng Ek Genocide Center is about 15km to the south of Phnom Penh. There were approximately 20,000 people killed here and buried in mass graves: men, women, and children. Prisoners were forced to dig a pit, then were led blindfolded to the pit, often naked and forced to kneel in front of the pit.  They were then usually smashed in the head with a heavy bar, then their throats were cut with the sharp, serrated edge of the stem of a palm frond and they were dumped in the grave.

Children were killed here as well. They were tossed into the air and shot or bayoneted, or were held by the feet and had their heads smashed into nails embedded in the trunk of a tree. Sometimes children were forced to kill their parents and family and bring the head of their father to the local Khmer Rouge leader as proof. The children were then also killed.

The clothing of the victims was kept or littered around, and the whole process was done quite sloppily. The bodies were dumped in heaps into numerous pits, making exhumation almost impossible to determine who belonged to what bones.

The Khmer Rouge kept detailed documentation of their victims, so that has been the best record for historical and family purposes.

     
The 'rolling green hills' are the multitude of exhumed graves at Choeng Ek. About 89 of 125 graves have been exhumed. The grave in the middle held 450 victims. The grave on the right held 166 beheaded victims. Just behind the headless grave is a small lake where victims were also deposited.

     
The Stuppa was erected in 1988 to honor the dead, and house their remains. There are bones, skulls and clothing kept here. The skulls and bones frequently describe the victims death.

I would have taken further pictures to show this historically and morally important place, but unfortunately our camera broke while we were there. Standing in the middle of a field, with the birds singing and small children begging, while a girl in her early 20's describes some of the most brutal methods of torture and systematic murder is a very impacting way to absorb the gravity, story and history of what happened here. While pictures can not possibly hope to relay all this, I would have liked to further document our experience photographically.

The openness with which this event is discussed, and the accessibility of the site are kind of mind blowing considering that a mere 20 odd years have passed since the event. People involved, from both sides, are alive today, and the perpetrators at the highest levels have been allowed to die of old age, and generally walking freely.

Pol Pot died under a relatively comfortable house arrest in 1998.

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Copyright 2003, Dana M. Brash. All Rights Reserved.