Killing fields and S21 Phnom Penh, Cambodia

From 1975 to 1979, 2 million out of 7 million Cambodians were murdered by Pol Pot and his henchmen the Khmer Rouge, (our guide and history scholar who was 15 years old at the time and forced into hard labor said he thought the number was closer to 3 million). Today we visited 1 of around 300 killing fields in Cambodia, each containing numerous mass graves. We also visited S21, a former high school the Khmer Rouge converted into a prison for torturing the educated, the upper class, anyone connected to the former government, and foreign journalists, in an attempt to close the gap between classes.

Both of the sites seem to have not changed much from their original state, with blood stains and bone fragments littering the ground. The sites are extremely crude and elicited a solemn emotion from both Jes and me.

I felt like an intruder walking over and past a history I'd have no possibility of understanding. Being a tourist can leave you feeling dirty in a place like this. However there is no doubt that these sites are powerful and important to history.

Below is a picture of the strange monument constructed to house bones and clothes of victims from the Choeung Ek killing field. Located 16 km from Phnom Penh.

Below is a tree which Khmer soldiers swung small children and babies against in order to save expensive bullets. You can still see the blood on the trunk. Also notice the bones located at the base. Our guide told us every time they get a hard rain bones and clothes from the victims reveal themselves.

-Jon