KILLING FIELD

Leg bone and clothing of Khmer Rouge victims lie exposed

I'm out in the Cambodian countryside, walking down a well worn dirt path. Looking down, I spot what looks like a tree root protruding from the dirt. It catches my eye, because unlike dark tree roots, it’s white. That’s when I realize, I'm not looking at a tree root at all.

It’s a bone, a human leg bone!

Where I’m standing, is in the middle of a killing field. From 1975 – 1978, there were 17,000 people murdered here by the Khmer Rouge. Most were innocent civilians.

Everyone has heard of the 'killing fields' due to the movie of the same name, and I'm visiting one for the first time. This killing field is known as Choeng Ek, located eight miles south of Phnom Penh. Here is where the guards of Tuol Sleng prison sent all of their victims  to be executed and buried.

As I walk further along the path, I see dirty pieces of clothing of every color, lying all over the ground. This isn’t discarded garbage, this was clothing of the victims buried here. Like the bones I see, pieces of clothing have gradually been uncovered and surfaced over the years from excavations and erosion. Much of it has been left in place. This is one giant crime scene.

Buddhist monks walk by excavated mass graves

Four Buddhist monks pass by on the path, while I look at burial pits to either side of me. Walking between the pits, even more parts of bones are visible protruding from the earth. Here a broken leg bone is sticking out. There is part of a skull. This killing field is made up of numerous mass graves. Pit after pit after pit, the shocking total is 129 mass graves in all.  

To bear witness to the atrocities committed here, signs were posted on the site. Those beneath two nearby thatched roof enclosures, need no further explanation.

“MASS GRAVE OF 166 VICTIMS WITHOUT HEADS”

“MASS GRAVE OF 450 VICTIMS”

This killing field isn’t exactly a field, as some trees are scattered throughout. I come to a large tree, with a stack of leg and arm bones piled up at its base. Apparently, human bones are occasionally gathered up, and placed into piles at locations around the site. A sign next to the tree says, “MAGIC TREE…THE TREE WAS USED AS A TOOL TO HANG A LOUDSPEAKER WHICH MAKE SOUND LOUDER TO AVOID THE MOANB OF VICTIMS WHILE THEY WERE BEING EXECUTED”. Just how did they get ‘Magic Tree’, out of something so horrible?

Children were killed here. Other bones at right.

The Khmer Rouge didn’t have the money, or the know how to make gas chambers and crematoriums like the Nazis did. So they brought their victims here, to what used to be an old cemetery. The Khmer Rouge wanted to save money on bullets, so few were shot here. Most of their victims here were beaten to death, or stabbed. Their tools of death included steel rods, bamboo poles, axes, hoes, shovels, and knives.

Another large, leaning tree, with another pile of bones at it’s base, has a sign that is even more disturbing. “KILLING TREE AGAINST WHICH EXECUTIONERS BEAT CHILDREN”.

In the first year of the genocide, it was mostly the civilians with ‘soft hands’ that were executed here. That meant that the victims were non-farmers, such as teachers, businessmen, white collar workers, and the educated class. There are a few westerners buried here as well, and foreigners that were married to Cambodians.

By the final year of killing here, there were no more enemies from the old regime left to execute. By that time, the Khmer Rouge were killing their own. Their paranoia and violence had been turned on each other. In a Cambodian version of the Red Terror, communists turned on communists, making false accusations to turn in political rivals. This is when the more Vietnamese oriented Eastern Zone of Cambodia became the number one target of the Khmer Rouge. Many cadres and soldiers from that region ended up buried here. The current Prime Minister Hun Sen, was a Khmer Rouge cadre from that area. The only reason he wasn't killed by his comrades, was because he managed to escape and flee to Vietnam.

Another twisted modus operandi of the Khmer Rouge, was their extensive use of child soldiers. That method was used here, as many of the executioners at Choeng Ek were only teenagers! As Pol Pot sought to 'purify' Cambodia, he had many executioners that were between 13 to 19 years old. 

Photos of Tuol Sleng victims buried at Choeng Ek. Those killed here include women and children.

On some days, more than 300 people were murdered at this site. Killing here was like a factory, and most victims were killed by hand. The executioners killed not just men, but also women and children. The mental and emotional trauma of murdering so many people by hand was more than many of the executioners could handle. Over time, many of them could just not deal with the horror of their actions. Some went crazy, rebelled, or deserted, only to be caught and returned. In an ironic end for them, those executioners who tried to escape, were brought back to be killed in this very place, where they themselves had killed others. (This had also happened to some of torturers at Tuol Sleng prison.) Still others were faithful communists doing their duty to the end, but were betrayed by other cadres, falsely accused, and executed.  

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese led government began excavations here in 1980. Of the 129 mass graves here, 86 were excavated. The diggers found heads were often buried separately, so they were unable to match heads to their original bodies. The pits were dug deep, corpses were usually crammed together, with bodies stacked high. They dug up more than 8,900 corpses, before finally halting the excavations. I’m aware that as I tread lightly around the paths of this killing field, directly beneath my feet are the remains of thousands of more victims, still interred where they were originally buried.

Memorial stupa, with remains inside

As time has passed, some signs of life have returned to this somber place. Birds are chirping in the trees, and an occasional butterfly floats by. Free range chickens peck at the dirt. Goats and cows chew on grass beyond the border fence. Since they didn't excavate all of the mass graves, the cows are probably grazing right on top of them. A tragic fact, is that this is only one of the many killing fields across in Cambodia. A survey done after the war, found that there are at least 389 mass graves across the country.

Choeng Ek has few surviving buildings. The old Khmer Rouge office, detention building, and sheds were torn down by scavengers long ago. But there is one tall building; a memorial stupa built in 1988.

I approach the structure apprehensively, knowing what's inside. (I saw a similar stupa for Vietnamese massacred by the Khmer Rouge, across the border in Vietnam.) From a distance, it looks only like a whitish tower with windows. The familiar sloping Khmer rooftop with heads of snake-like nagas point up from the corners. As I get closer, I see what is behind the windows. Skulls. Layers and layers of human skulls, with shelves reaching higher and higher. There have to be thousands of human skulls here.

Surprisingly, the door isn't locked. My guide opens it, and gestures me to enter. I slowly step inside. Solo flute music floats down from somewhere. The stupa has 17 levels to symbolize April 17th, the day that Khmer Rouge rule began in 1975. I walk around the interior looking at them, level after level, skull after skull. They all stare right back at me, with their dark empty eyes. I remember all those enlarged photos of the faces of condemned prisoners back in the Tuol Sleng prison; they ended up executed here. I look at all of these skulls lined up together, staring back at me. These aren’t  just pictures on a wall any more. These are the genuine faces of death. The question comes to me, that comes to all visitors who see this. Why? Why? It’s a question no civilized person can answer. It’s answered only in the twisted logic, the barbarity, the insanity that made up the murderous mindset of the Khmer Rouge communists.

Inside the stupa, are shelves stacked with skulls of Khmer Rouge victims

Exiting the tower, on steps next to the stupa, I encounter a steel rod, with leg irons looped through it. If prisoners arriving on Chinese trucks got here too late at night for executions, these leg irons were put over their ankles. The condemned were all forced to lie in a row, shackled to the same steel rod. There are enough leg irons here to shackle six people together. Some of the leg irons here look too small to fit around an adult’s ankle. My guide says that in that case, the guards would break the prisoner’s ankle, to make it fit.

Choeng Ek has its greatest number of annual visitors on May 20th, the local Memorial Day, when many Khmers who lost relatives here come to remember them. My guide says he's been here then, and that many seniors cry.

One of the signs I read as I’m about to leave, gives the best description I’ve seen yet of the Khmer Rouge leaders.

“THE METHOD OF MASSACRE WHICH THE CLIQUE OF POL POT CRIMINALS WAS CARRIED UPON THE INNOCENT PEOPLE OF KAMPUCHEA (CAMBODIA) CANNOT BE DESCRIBED FULLY AND CLEARLY IN WORDS BECAUSE THE INVENTION OF THIS KILLING METHOD WAS STRANGELY CRUEL SO IT IS DIFFICULT OR US TO DETERMINE WHO THEY ARE FOR : THEY HAVE THE HUMAN FORM BUT THEIR HEARTS ARE DEMON’S HEARTS, THEY HAVE GOT THE KHMER FACE BUT THEIR ACTIVITIES ARE PURELY REACTIONARY. THEY WANTED TO TRANSFORM CAMPUCHEAN PEOPLE INTO A GROUP OF PERSONS WITHOUT REASON OR A GROUP WHO KNEW AND UNDERSTOOD NOTHING, WHO ALWAYS BENT THEIR HEADS TO CARRY OUT ANKAR’S ORDERS BLINDLY THEY HAD EDUCATED AND TRANSFORMED YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE ADOLESCENT WHOSE HEARTS ARE PURE, GENTLE AND MODEST INTO ODIOUS EXECUTIONERS WHO DARED TO KILL THE INNOCENT AND EVEN THEIR OWN PARENTS, RELATIVES OR FRIENDS.”

Some executioners survived those years, and remain free to this day. They have never been arrested for their crimes here at this killing field. I asked my guide what he thought about the Khmer Rouge who are alive today, and he told me, “We forgive them, but we never forget.”

TORTURE ROOMS IN KHMER ROUGE PRISON

Cramped cells in the S-21 prison

I’m in a high school courtyard in Phnom Penh, but this is no ordinary school. With several three story high buildings, there is room here for over a thousand students.

Or prisoners.

After the communist Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh in 1975, they converted this school into a prison called 'S-21'. It is today known as Tuol Sleng. Once a place of youth and learning, this school was transformed into a place of unspeakable torture and inhumanity. I had already seen the down sides of ‘revolution’ in neighboring Vietnam and Laos, but nowhere were the communists more evil and murderous than here in Cambodia.

Of the more than 17,000 people who were imprisoned here at Tuol Sleng, only 7 prisoners survived. All the thousands of others who were brought here were executed, tortured to death, or died in their cells from disease or mistreatment. The only reason that those 7 inmates were allowed to live, was because they happened to possess skills that their captors could use. One was an artist, forced to carve busts of their maniac leader Pol Pot. Another was a photographer, who took mug shots of doomed prisoners. 

Dreading what I'm going to see here, I enter the former school, walking into what once was a classroom. But the desks are gone, replaced by several sets of poorly built prison cells. Some are made of wood, others made of brick. There's no electricity; the only light peeks in from windows and small vents, leaving dark shadows across the room. I step into one of the eerie cells to get the feel of the place. Claustrophobic isn't the word; I’ve been in closets bigger than this. This cell is so small, there isn't enough room to lie down. For the prisoners it was far worse, they had to share these cells with other inmates.

Inmates were inhumanely shackled together by their ankles, to these metal poles

Stepping back out, I find a door has been knocked out through the school room wall's center, revealing another room full of cells. No door frame was installed; jagged brick and mortar was left exposed. Looking through, I see another crude door cut into the next room's far wall, and the next. This crudely cut hallway made it easier for the Khmer Rouge to police their doomed prisoners.

Exiting this gloomy scene, I head upstairs to the main detention rooms. On this level there there are no cells. Prisoners' ankles were locked in leg shackles, attached directly to a long steel pole on the floor. This forced prisoners to lie on the tiled floor tightly together, side by side, all day and night. This kept them immobilized; a method of confinement learned from French colonials. To relieve themselves, they had to use a bucket where they lay. Hygiene was non-existent; this led to rampant diarrhea. Shackled to these poles, inmates sometimes couldn't get a bucket, leaving them to lie in their own feces. They were released from these shackles only for interrogation and torture.

Barbed wire on upper walkways was to prevent prisoner suicides

I leave the room for the walkway, which like most Asian schoolhouses, is open to the exterior. Here I find barbed wire, stretched from the railings to the ceiling. The barbed wire was installed to prevent the prisoners from jumping to their deaths. Some of the poor souls here chose suicide, rather than continuing to endure the torture and horrific conditions of S-21.

On average, the prisoners of Tuol Sleng survived here for 1 - 3 months, until their 'interrogation' was complete. By that time, repeated torture had forced them into confessing to crimes, real or imagined. Then they were taken away to be executed in the killing fields.

At times S-21 was packed with prisoners beyond capacity. There were occasions when truckloads of prisoners arrived, and the prison was already overfilled. So the trucks never unloaded. The prisoners were just sent off for immediate execution.

Entering an adjacent school building, I find another former class room. In happier times, eager students were questioned by their teachers here. But after the communists took over, there was questioning in this room of a different kind. The Khmer Rouge called it an interrogation room. What it really was used for, was torture.

Torture room used by Khmer Rouge, with cat sleeping under the bed

The horrors wroght by the Khmer Rouge finally came to light in 1979, when they fled Phnom Penh ahead of the advancing Vietnamese Army. When Vietnamese troops first captured this prison, they were appalled by what they saw. Entering this very room, they found the mutilated body of a man lying on a bed, his leg still shackled to the frame. On the floor beneath the bed was a pool of blood. In the next room, they found a similar gruesome scene. And the next room, and the next. In all, there were 14 corpses in this building, and all had been tortured to death. One of them was a woman. Each was left lying where they had died, as the torturers and guards had fled the city. Before the Vietnamese soldiers removed the bodies, they photographed each gory scene; a photo showing the gruesome scene found in this room is on the wall. The unnamed torture victims are buried in the school courtyard.

This sad room is now eerily quiet and calm. Except for the corpse, most of what was originally found in this room was left right where it was found. The bed is still here, with a bamboo mat stretched across it. There’s an ammunition case - prisoners used it as a toilet. There's a shovel, used as a torture implement. Looking closer on the floor, is another disturbing sight. Spots of blood stains, left from the room’s final victim.

This room may be the most evil place I've ever seen. Unspeakable acts took place here. It is truly unfathomable, that any man could do this to his fellow man. A sign posted outside lists the 10 rules that prisoners had to follow during interrogations. Presuming the prisoner's guilt, numbers 6, 9 and 10, are chillingly brutal.

Torture rooms seen at the left, the last victims were buried in the school courtyard

THE SECURITY OF REGULATION
1. you must answer accordingly to my questions – 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 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 any pretext about Kampuchea Krom (Lower Cambodia) in order to hide your secret or traitor.
9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either 10 lashes or 5 shocks of electric discharge.

Of all 17,000 prisoners, only these 7 men survived (museum photo)

The windows of the interrogation rooms, are different from others in the prison. Unlike others that only had French shutters, the interrogation rooms all had glass windows. This was because when the prisoners were being tortured here, their screams of pain and agony could be heard throughout the prison. So they installed glass windows to make the screams less audible.

The other torture rooms, have similar scenes with similar furniture. Beds, chains, and primitive torture implements. Each has an enlarged photo on the wall, showing the graphic scene of how the prisoner's bloody corpse was found here on the final day. 

One room has a strange difference. For some reason, a stray cat is lying under the foot of the bed, sound asleep, at peace. 

The old school and former prison is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum