Day 13 - The Killing Fields

I decided this deserves its own post today so the rest of our day will be in Part 2. 

Khmer Rouge was a Communist radical movement which translates to  “Red Cambodian”. Polpot is the name of the regime which is short for “political potential” but also what they called the leader of the KR. The KR was created in the 1950’s to fight against the French occupation but in late 1960’s (67-68) it was supported by the VietCong (North Vietnamese) and then 1969 was supported by communist party of China. Originally they were first fighting against the King but then changed to support the King after he was exiled in 1970 following heavily the advice and ideology of Mao Tse Toung. They wanted to stop the new government created after the King was exiled, the New Cambodia American Republic. 

 

The total reported / recorded deaths is between 1.5-2.5million but in reality almost 4million people died from starvation, overworking, disease and execution. A lot were missing, like Nin’s parents, so not reported as dead. 

Nin lost 4 siblings and both parents (because they were both teachers and they had reading glasses). Everyone with glasses was executed so the people would pretended not to know how to read or write or speak and would not wear their glasses.  He still has 2 siblings younger than him who survived, a brother and sister. 

Nin ate bugs, rats, scorpions, grasshoppers and lizards because they didn’t get fed anything but rice that was mostly water like porridge with yam leaves in it. Everyone had to eat in the community setting. If you got caught eating a piece of fruit or fallen piece of vegetable you were the enemy and could be killed immediately. Nin had his knee broken or badly injured for picking up a piece of yam off the ground and eating it because he was caught. The man pointed an AK47 at him and said he would shoot him but instead took a long stick and beat him. 

Reed another guide  lost 5 siblings, parents, grandparents and an aunt and uncle. Sean lost the most - his entire family. 

At 7 yrs old Nin was given a gun and he had to say he loved the gun and the uniform. He was lucky because he was sent to work at a chicken and duck farm because he was so young. Everyone had to work starting at 6yrs. If you didn’t work you were considered to be the enemy. He stole eggs for himself and his sister and was punished weekly. He would be beaten across the shoulders with a stick for eating and reporting the wrong number of eggs. 

The KR would ask “Nin, Do you have parents?” No. “Where were you born

from?” I was born from the top (brother #1, the leader of the organization) 

Following Chinese ideologies was to kill the tree you have to kill the roots. So they killed the entire family. Nin was very lucky to survive with younger siblings. 

9 Regulations.

S21 is in the middle of the city. Security Centre #21 out of 296 Security Centres made mostly from converted schools because they had roofs so it was easier to keep secure. This one was a high school with 4 buildings. Over 4 years S21 housed 18-20,000 victims (including 800 foreigners) - in 1979 there were only 12 survivors - 8 adults (7 have since died) and 4 children (2 live in Germany and 2 in Cambodia). The remaining survivor was at the prison today to speak to us and sell his book. 

There were 189 killing sites recorded but now they have found in total more than 380 killing fields and every rainy season skulls and bones are excavated naturally by the rain water. 

Building A - housed VIP to be tortured, these prisoners were accused of being American CIA or Russian KGB spies. They were the educated doctors and teachers. They were all tortured with lashes or shocks and killed, how long it took depended on their answers. They got more “private rooms” because they were strapped to beds to be tortured. 

7 of the 8 adult survivors

Nin has looked at many museums for photos of his parents but hasn’t found them. He has one photo of his parents from 1973 with his parents and younger brother in Phnom Penh. They took photos for discipline regulations and numbered everyone and these were used for officially recording those who died. I asked him later if he had ever used AI to see if his parents photo could be recognized if it’s catalogued anywhere. He hasn’t but someone else told him. He said it’s been 48 years so he knows they are not alive or they would have found him. I only mentioned it because he said he was looking for them if he wanted to know where they were after being separated. 

Each space here was 1M wide x 2M deep

Nin showed us where the only survivor was housed. He was arrested when he was 46 years old. Now he’s 95 years old.

There are plaques like this surrounding the whole monument

Nin translated while he told us a few things. 

He was imprisoned for 4 months and 5 days. His toenails were removed, his 4 children and wife were killed. 

The poster explained he was a mechanic working in Phnom Penh when the KR took over and then after he was working for KR but then he was accused of being a CIA or KGB spy. His younger brother is the only family to survive because he was a barber for the KR. Eventually 2 journalists helped him go to the international court to testify to his experience and have it recorded. 

Victims were sent to the killing field which was 25km away from S-21 and close to the garbage dump to keep the smell out of the city. But also so the people don’t know what’s happening easily because they couldn’t hear the moans of those being killed.

We left here and bussed to The Killing Fields and Nin educated us along the way:

The South Vietnam army came to help in 1979 and took over the KR and retook Phnom Penh. But along the Thailand border the KR kept up for another 21 years and set up camps in the mountain foothills. It wasn’t until 1999 after Polpot died the KR army leaders decided to come back to Cambodia and join the government and drop their guns and uniforms and were integrated into the Cambodian Army Forces. 

The Vietnamese came to help but was an occupation from 1979-1989 and Cambodia was under Vietnamese communist rule. They rebuilt the infrastructure including roads, education and healthcare, allowed citizens to own their properties and farm. But behind the scenes they were controlling. They were part of the UN discussions to give aid to the Cambodian people in 1978 and instead acted quickly to invade and occupy for the next 10 years. 

An American journalist, Elizabeth Becker from the NYT in 1978 was sent from US to Cambodia to meet Polpot to interview him along with 2 other corespondents from Australia and Britain. They saw no one was living in the city and were told everyone was out late working in the fields and would return, but they all suspected something was wrong. Elizabeth Becker was smart and took no notes, she recorded everything in her head while the Australian and British journalists tried to send a telegram to the UN and were killed. She was allowed to return to the US where she wrote an article on the city and the farmers who were starving and was a major catalyst to the UN discussions. 

Killing fields - it’s not a good trip to take but it’s something people need to know about the darkest modern history of Cambodia. This is one of the real examples of what happened in the region where you can feel it for yourself.  It’s one thing to read it or watch a movie, it’s another to see the tree they used to smash babies off of before throwing them in a pit with their raped mothers to die. 

This is full of skulls

At the Killing field location they have excavated 80 mass graves and uncovered over 10,000 skulls. They have left the other 106 mass graves to let them rest in peace. They also only uncovered about the first 18” of soil and found 400 bodies, if they dug deeper they would continue to uncover them. 

They weren’t killed quickly with bullets but were sprayed with pesticides and chemicals and died a slow death. If they weren’t dead yet they were buried alive. 

We left to go back to the boat and Nin explained some more information.

There were 7-8M land mines remaining in 1980 until 2003 when Princess Diana came to Cambodia and she promised to aid against land mines. She came back and brought a non-profit organization to clear land mines. Today there are some left along the border but  Cambodia hopes to be land mine free in the next 3 years. They used to use dogs and people but now they use mostly “hero rats” who have been trained to detect land mines from a distance. They now have 100 rats from Tanzania (big healthy rats) that are trained to smell the mine and will stop 5M from the mine and indicate by scratching the ground. The rats eat cashews and peanuts and have been very effective. 

ECCC - Extraordinary Chambers of the international Court of Cambodia. No one confessed they pled ignorance. “I did not know my army killed my people”.  KR leaders died of old age so no justice was done for the victims. But Buddhist philosophy is forgiveness. If you seek revenge the story never ends it continues to be a cycle of retribution. 

At 17 Nin became a monk for 2.5 so his family would have honour since his parents are missing. He knew his wife and met her at the Children’s Center. They got married in 2006 and have 4 children. I asked him later on the bus how old his children are he has 3 daughters 18, 17 and 13 and a 10 year old son. 

I asked him about the family we met in Angkor Ban, it seemed they had modest means but they had 2 daughters married with nice wedding pictures in a traditional costume. He says it’s cheap to do it and everyone does it no matter how much money they have. I asked if his home has 3 rooms because he has 3 daughters. He said when the older 2 got to be about 13 and 14 he did an extension on his house to add 2 rooms and a bathroom for them and now his 13 yr old and 10 yr old share a room, the older girls have their own rooms and he and his wife have a room. 

He doesn’t yet have pink curtains outside for his daughters but they do have suitors for when they want to get married.