Having only heard about the Khmer Rouge through books & films, it was incredibly harrowing to visit this site with a guide who was a child when the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh in 1975. Over a million Cambodians were killed by the UCKRR in just 44 months. They executed anyone connected with the defeated Lon Nol government, anyone from an educated, non-peasant background or of Chinese / Vietnamese origin, including women & children. To save on bullets, they were beaten or hacked to death and thrown into mass graves. Not all of the graves have been excavated and as you walk along the path, bits of cloth are sticking out of the ground. Then you realize that there are bodies everywhere underneath you.
Like the Nazis, they photographed their atrocities, yet despite the evidence the International Court is unable to bring anyone to justice. Each defendant says, “if you’re going to prosecute me, you have to prosecute most of the current government, the King and the UN, as all were embroiled with the regime and aware of the genocide”. They have a good point.The memorial charnel house contains 8000 human skulls and remains. Only ‘Pre-Independence’ history is taught today and no school trips are allowed to visit the Killing Fields. Cambodia just seems to ignore the murderers that walk among them and quietly waits for that whole generation to die off.
