The Killing Fields

Mr. Sothea picked me up this morning on his moto. Driving through Phnom Penh on the back of one of these is a bit terrifying. There are no traffic laws and it is every man (& woman!) for himself. Mr. Sothea wears a helment but I merely cling on for my life. Maybe by the end of my 8 weeks here I will become accustomed to it.

On the way to the killing fields Mr. Sothea stopped to show me this field where some type of flower is grown. He called them morning glories but I'm not sure what they are exactly.

In these fields, people live in houses on stilts and ride these boats from their houses through the rows to pick the flowers.

This is the monument which houses thousands of skulls that were discovered when this killing field, located just outside of Phnom Penh, was excavated in the 1980's. This is only one of several hundred mass grave sites left behind my the communist party, The Khmer Rouge. Over 17,000 innocent men, women, and children were executed here by the Khmer Rouge, which took over shortly after the Vietnam War. Often, prisoners were bludgeoned to death because bullets were too costly.

When it rains, as it often does in Cambodia, fragments of bone from the grave sites surface.

Bone fragments.

After people were executed, their clothing was disinfected. I'm not sure why.

For me, this was the most disturbing part of the Killing Field. The children and infants of prisoners of the Khmer Rouge were not spared in fear that they may retaliate against the regime later on in life. This tree was used to beat children and infants to death.

Mr. Sothea was born in 1979, the same year the Khmer Rouge was removed from power. Therefore, he himself did not experience the regime. However, he told me his parents, who worked as farmers in the rice fields, describe life under the regime as very sad and difficult. He also told me that certain leaders of the regime now serve as top politicians in Cambodia's current government. Scary.