Cambodia- Khmer Rouge

The next part of our trip was not beautiful or fun.  It was a rude reminder of what humans are capable of.  We visited killing caves, killing fields, and torture/prison camps.  The Khmer Rouge did all of this to their own people.  Their idea was that Cambodia and the world needed to go back to a simpler time where everyone was farmers and self sufficient.  They wanted to eliminate anyone suspected of "free market activities".  Thus began the jailing and elimination of any person in Cambodia who were professionals and intellectuals.  They wanted a purely agrarian society.  The estimated death toll during the Khmer Rouge is roughly 2.2 million people.  These deaths were either direct result of being killed or from torture, starvation or sickness.  This genocide occurred during the 1970s.  The Khmer Rouge had a seat in the UN until 1993.


On the way to the killing caves.  The killing caves located near Battambang have been turned into a memorial and Buddhist Temple.  There were 3 entrances to the caves at the top of hills.  They segregated the people into men and women.  The women were knocked over the head into one, the men into the other, but not before they were made to strip and drop their clothes into the third hole.

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, formerly known as Security Prison 21 (S-21).  Prisoners were held here to be tortured and then lead to their death at the killing fields.  This used to be a high school in Phnom Penh.

The killing fields.  Words can't express the feelings of walking through this.  There were many things I didn't take pictures of, such as the baby killing tree.  I stood there and cried and just couldn't take a picture.  This was one of the most sobering experiences of my life.  There are so many bodies here that pieces of bone and clothing still work their way to the surface.  These people were also bashed over the head, usually at the back of the skull, to land in the pit dead or not.  Bullets were not to be wasted in killing these people said their commander because it was too expensive.  There are roughly 20,000 of these sites throughout Cambodia.

Until next time.....