The Killing Fields

Just 40 short years ago communist leader Pol Pot and his Khmer Rogue army were inflicting their reign of terror and genocide on the people of Cambodia. In just under four years they would wipe out an estimated 1.7 million people, a staggering 21 percent of Cambodia’s population. In the chronicle of 20th century horrors, Cambodia ranks high.

Today the ordeal is over, but it is far from forgotten and nowhere is that more prevalent than The Killing Fields. Just nine miles from the city of Phnom Penh, the fields of Choeung Ek have become a tourist attraction. Horrifying and fascinating, the fields contain mass graves for more than 20,000 Cambodians. Many of whom were tortured before being brutally killed in what has now become one of the cruelest eras in history.

Choeung Ek was a place people came to die. Thousands of innocent men, women and children were brought to the fields, here they were tortured and executed and nobody left alive. Today The Killing Fields are a resting place for the souls who were lost. Curated in such a tasteful and respectful manner the fields represent a place to think; a place to remember. Aided by an audiotape you are led around the fields to hear the stories of the devastating events that took place here. Open graves are now fenced off and scattered with hundreds of brightly coloured ribbons and bracelets, but the human bones that come unearthed after heavy rains, lay at your feet as you walk, a solemn reminder that this is no museum but a cemetery.

Tourist curiosity about Cambodia’s genocide brings hundreds of visitors to The Killing Fields each month and for a wounded country, that is trying desperately to come to terms with the atrocities that took place here, education on the subject is paramount.

For me the sight of 8,000 human skulls in a glass shrine is something I will never be able to shake from my memory. It was a sight that brought me to silence, that brought me to tears, a sight that had me praying for the people lost and those left behind to mourn.