S21 and the Killing Fields

Beginning in 1975 the Khmer Rouge (Communist Party of Kampuchea) led by Pol Pot terrorized Cambodia with outrageous acts of social engineering and genocide that lasted several years. The number of deaths is difficult to determine due to the fact that many not murdered died of starvation, disease and repression but 1.5 to 2 MILLION would be a fair low estimate. These were Cambodians rounded up and executed because they had the potential to disagree with this nut-bag’s ideals. Those first imprisoned and murdered would include intellectuals, members of opposing ideals, people with an education, and all members of their families (who may at sometime wish to seek revenge) in order to create a classless society. In a short time Phnom Penh would resemble a near deserted city.

S21(Security Prison 21) was a former high school that was converted to a prison to interrogate, document, torture and exterminate over 17,000 people taken by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. It is a very accessible place in Phnom Penh and left for visitors as a museum to remind the world of what shit can still happen when ego and power trump sanity.

Just outside the city of Phnom Penh you can find one of the Killing Fields (Choeung Ek). If you intend a visit prepare yourself that this area, used as a place of execution and mass grave still has parts of its horrific past visible those walking through. As the earth wares down on the pathways (and erosion from seasonal rains) there are articles of clothing and human remains (bones) that push up like rags and white stones from the dirt.

Now, a Buddhist memorial to the terror at Choeung Ek exists, full of bone and clothing remains visible through glass. I was fortunate to have a great guide whose English was quite good and he and I made our way past the memorial visiting various mass graves that have been identified. The manner in which Pol Pot’s men performed their duty was awful. Crude tools like axes and farm equipment were often used. Groups of people were shackled together at the ankles while being transported. If the person’s ankle was too large for the shackle the solution was simple, push the metal rod through the shackle loop regardless. If the thrashing didn't kill you, you may have your throat slashed. Unthinkably, one of the tools used to slash people was the sharp blade found on the branch of palm plants. Infants and small children were picked up by their legs and smashed to death against trees. Some burial pits include hundreds of bodies, others of just men, some of naked women and children, and even one mass grave of headless bodies thought to be of Pol Pot’s men that may have crossed him or disagreed with him.

When I consider genocides such as these existing within my lifetime, the track record over the last century, and the current atrocities and genocides that exist today it makes it ever harder to believe we actually learn from the mistakes and horrors of our past.