JK - After we had been to Tuol Sleng Museum, we made the 15km journey southwest to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Before being used as a place to execute 1000's of Cambodians it was an orchard and Chinese graveyard. As the numbers of people being executed increased the Khmer Rouge needed another place to carry out their executions and so moved to one of 300 Killing Fields in Cambodia. Most of the 17000 prisoners at Tuol Sleng were executed at Choeung Ek. It is hard to believe what went on here as you walk around today, but the audio guides that we decided to use brought it home in a powerful and sensitive way. The prisoners were brought in trucks to the site at night, so nobody knew what went on. Prisoners were stripped naked before being killed - often being bludgeoned to death to save bullets. After a while the numbers became so great they didn't even have time to remove the clothing. Music and propaganda speeches were played from speakers hanging from trees to drown out the screams and DDT was put in to the mass graves to hide the smell and to kill prisoners that might have not died from the initial wound. Wandering around today you can still see items of victims clothing in the soil, and when the rains come teeth and bones come to the surface and people are warned to walk carefully around the site to make sure they don't stand on any. There are a couple of glass boxes around the site containing bones of the victims and on the top of these visitors to the site have put bones and teeth fragments that they must have found while wandering around. There are also mass graves, one which held over 450 people that have been roped off because there are still bones, teeth and clothing still visible. It is seeing these that really brought home to me what happened with sudden clarity and horror. The photo I have used to accompany this entry is called the Killing Tree. Apologies for this, but it had been named this because this is the tree where a number of children were killed by the Khmer Rouge. Again to save bullets, they would swing the children by their legs and hit their heads on the tree to kill them. One of the soldiers that liberated the site described what he found here, it was a heart wrenching piece to hear and to think it only happened in 1975. It is hard to believe that the man in control of all this was only brought to trial in 2010 and originally only got 35 years despite admitting responsibility for over 10000 people is unbelievable. However, in February 2012 this was changed to life but seeing as he is in his 70's this is almost the same, either way it is shocking to think it took until now to sentence him and the other surviving members of the. Khmer Rouge. I believe the case for some still goes on and evidence is still being collected. http://www.eccc.gov.kh/en

The Memorial Stupa is a final reminder on the site of the cruel events that took place here. A tall, quite beautiful building contains over 8000 skulls of the victims and items of their clothing.
The site is sensitively explained and the interpretive boards are simple, it really isn't the sort of place where you want flashing AV interpretive panels. It is a very beautiful place and one where hopefully people can reflect on what happened and not forget those who suffered.

It is hard to put in to words how I felt walking around here. It is something that happened very recently and it is shocking to think that people haven't learned from this when you think of what happened in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. We all felt a little empty when we left and I think it will stay with us for a while to come.
Walking round the streets of Cambodia you will notice that there are very few older people, something like 50% of the population is under 30, a large art of a whole generation missing. With an estimated 1.7 million people killed under Pol Pot in the 3 years, 8 months and 20 days of his rule it isn't hard to see why.