WARNING! What you are about to read is a tragic, heart wrenching and in some cases brutal and disturbing truth. The pictures that accompany this blog may also stir emotions, that said we urge you to read on as this is a story that needs to be told.

The ‘Khmer Rouge Empire’ was a mighty dictatorship that once ruled much of what is now Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and the whole of Cambodia. The empire ruled these from 1975-1979 and did so with an iron fist and to see the result of this we visited the ‘Choeung Ek Genocidal Center’, otherwise known as the ‘Killing Fields’.

The first part of the fields have several marker points all telling a bit of the story, the first is the truck stop where vehicles holding around 30 people each would stop to unload the victims. They had been tortured prior to delivery here so would be led either directly to for execution or detained in holding areas if the executers were behind schedule. Now why would they be behind schedule you may ask, with only what is actually a small number of people arriving every 3 weeks?! Well the answer is the execution process was not quick, or painless and the numbers kept growing until they reached 300 per day.

Women, Men, Children and babies were all brought here, initially all were killed either by been shot or by electric shock. The cost of this though became too high as the numbers increased, so to save bullets and electricity one of three methods was adopted for killing the adults and older children, 1st been to decapitate them (the best option for the victim). 2nd been that their heads would be bludgeoned to death with rifle buts, sticks with spikes protruding or just lumps of wood. 3rd would be to bury them alive with the dead corpses, but not before dowsing them in chemicals which would basically disintegrate everything other than bone and stop the stench of rotting flesh from the other already dead bodies.

That only leaves the Babies which is no less horrific than the others. As the babies were so small and light the soldiers would swing them round by an arm or leg and literally smash them against a tree trunk repeatedly until dead!! Although pictures of this do exist, only vague paintings are displayed in representation of this to avoid unnecessary distress.

The chief of the notorious torture prison ’S-21’ commonly know as ‘Duch’ named the killing of children and babies as ‘Clearing Grasses’. This meant that killing the children and babies of the executed parents for apposing the empire, would prevent them taking revenge on the empire in their later life and reducing the chance of further opposition.

In the centre of the fields is a large white Stupa where the skulls of thousands of people are held, they are on display through glass and sometimes open windows where you can clearly distinguish the skulls that had been bludgeoned as parts are missing or broken. We feel it important to explain this brings much needed awareness and remembrance to this tragic part of history reminding that nothing like this should ever be allowed to happen again and in no way does the display of these seems in no way inappropriate. Without this visible reminder it is at first hard to fully understand exactly how many peoples lives were lost under the empires rule.

Directly in front of the Stupa holding the skulls is a place to light and leave incense sticks as a mark of respect and to give donations, this keeps the site secure and as a place for the families and friends of those executed here a sense that their loved ones are now in a place of rest and calm.

You will see on the pictures the many dips in the ground which were the graves of the thousands, from the signs you will also see how it was impossible to identify the reminds of the bodies as their parts were sometimes separated.

For whatever comfort and justice it brings, after years of negotiation a united nations court was set up solely for the trial of the leaders and remaining parties of the ‘Khmer Rouge’. The trial is now ongoing and some offenders have already served the death penalty while others await trial.