The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

Although we went to see the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum fairly early in our time in Cambodia, somehow that seemed enough horror for us. We only finally made a visit to the killing fields of Choeung Ek in 2008. This is where the 17,000 prisoners of Security Prison 21 (S-21) were taken to be buried. Some died under interrogation and torture, some died at Choeung Ek immediately before burial, some were buried alive. A little over half the thousands of bodies have been exhumed from the mass graves, and the skulls placed in a glass windowed stupa, with the remaining bones housed in the roof. Part of the site is now under water, and so the graves in that section have never been opened.

For some visitors, as they walk around the many, many mass graves (now not so deep due to the earth being washed back in over the years), with the soil surface still littered with scraps of clothing from the victims, the horror seems greater than that of the prison. For me, somehow, the deaths at Choeung Ek seem almost merciful following the terrible torture of Tuol Sleng, as the prisoners desperately tried to satisfy their interogators and so bring an end to their suffering in death. Either way, both sites are an horrific reminder of just how near unspeakable cruelty and genocide can be.

The final three pictures show some juvenile skulls in the stupa; a tree near the mass graves with the caption 'Killing tree against which executioners beat children'; and a plaque describing some of the terrible details of burial.

Toul Sleng

These photos were taken on a harrowing visit in 2002 to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is housed in what was Security Prison 21 (S-21), a former high school that was converted into an interrogation and torture centre by the Khmer Rouge. During 1975-79, more than 17,000 people held at S-21 were subsequently executed there or at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. One of the most striking aspects of the museum is that it shows genocide 'on the cheap'. The high school looks as if little more than a week's effort was made to convert it into a torture centre, with the torture implements themselves simple household items or gym equipment from the school. Intentionally, we have not been to the museum many times, even though everyone who visits Cambodia should see it, because it is so distressing. We finally took Martin in 2008, as it seemed time for him to see with his own eyes what we had only talked about before, and he was willing to see it; Lisa has yet to go.

The pictures show the prisoners' security regulations; a torture room (with a photograph of the last vistim on the wall); the faces of the dead; the function of Building 'C'; some of the cells; and a view through the barbed wire into the courtyard.