S-21 & The Killing Fields

In 1975, Cambodia had already taken a beating from during the Vietnam War from carpet bombing by the U.S.A., invasions from US and South Vietnamese troops targeting “Communist bases”, conflicts were growing with Vietnamese on borders, and within the country itself was the battle for power between Lon Nol and the Khmer Rouge. However it was the next stage that was a peak of Terror in the country, Cambodia’s Holocaust.

Lon Nol had fled to Hawaii, and on April 17, 1975, shortly after the taking of Saigon, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took control of Phnom Penh and effectively turned it into a labour camp. The plan was to return to “Year Zero”, a peasant society without schools, currency, education etc. With this goal in mind, the Khmer Rouge began targeting the educated for execution, anyone who could speak a second language, showed creativity, skilled labor etc, or was members of the former Rouge and Lon Nol troops. Including their families.

There are numerous camps around Cambodia, known as “The Killing Fields”. Choeung Ek is a monument at one of these camps near Phnom Penh, and I highly recommend you get a guide who will give you an amazing yet disturbing account of what went on in these camps, similar to those ran by the Nazis. It is estimated that over 17,000 people were murdered at this site, and over 200,000 in the various camps. Anyone from babies to elderly, male and female, that were considered to be, or connected to, those who didn’t fit into the Year Zero ideals.

They stopped recovering people’s remains after a period of time, because it was thought better to leave them lie undisturbed, and may be damaged in the process. Also it would create more tension, pain and suffering for those involved. To that point, we were quite literally walking over the remains of those killed, some bones of which were visible, revealed by weather and soil erosion.

You may want to skip to the next paragraph here as I mention some of went on at the site. In an effort to save on bullets, alternative methods were used to carry out the executions; anything from hatchets to gardening tools, and even the extreme use of Palm Branches, thick and solid with sharp saw like edges, they were used to cut the heads of victims. Babies were killed by winging their bodies to hit their skulls against trees.

Perhaps even more disturbing, is that many of the Khmer Rouge were kids themselves, recruited, brainwashed, and scared into following orders. All the while, walking around the site, you can hear the sounds of a near by school, kids playing.

The Choeung Ek Monument itself is a stupa in the centre, containing the skulls and remains of over 5,000 victims. The skulls are clearly visible, many showing signs of fractures and damage, evidence of their brutal demise.

After this, we visited S-21, or the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. There is a 30min video shown at times throughout the day, and it is suggested you start your tour with the video. S-21 is actually a former school, which was occupied and transformed into a torture camp. There were prison cells and barbed wire to stop people from trying to commit suicide. The camp was used to force confessions and get names of family members of those brought there, many of which ended up at the killing fields.

Now it serves as a museum, with plaques of photos and stories. One gallery is by a group from Sweden, who at the time came to visit Cambodia as a Communist party of interest. Naive maybe, but their tour of the country was highly orchestrated and veiled what was really going on. What they saw was working hospitals, schools, people smiling and with food, speakers of Enlgish and French. Only later did they realise the truth. This lack of true information to the outside world did not help the situation.

Vietnamese eventually took control of Phnom Penh in 1979, and after 5 years of rule by the Khmer Rouge, and the following famine, it is estimated over 2,000,000 Cambodian died from the events.

Below is a list of 10 rules given to the prisoners who arrived at S-21 (Written as the sign currently posts)

1. You must answer accordingly to my question. Don’t turn them away.
2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Don’t be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Don’t make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your jaw of traitor.
9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many many lashes of electric wire.
10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.

Battambang, Cambodia’s 2nd largest town? »« Phnom Penh