Visiting Prison S21 and the Killing Fields memorials, Cambodia

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In the 1970s Pol Pot (nom de guerre, short for Politique potentielle) lead the Khmer Rouge (Cambodian communists) to eventually overthrow the failing dictatorship of Lon Nol (who had himself overthrown the Prince).

“The Cambodian communist movement emerged from the country’s struggle against French colonization 1940s, and was influenced by the Vietnamese. Fueled by the first Indochina War in the 1950s, and during the next 20 years, the movement took roots and began to grow.”

*http://www.cambodiatribunal.org

After five years of foreign interventions, aerial bombing and civil war in Cambodia, Phnom Penh, fell to the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot.

Pol Pot was a big fan of Mao and Maoist communism based on “peasant revolution” (vs the “workers revolution” of the Soviets). Pol Pot didn't think that Mao's cultural revolution went far enough to reshape society, he had far more extreme ideas of how to social engineer a society in his vision.

Pol Pot's goal after taking power was to reduce the country to a purely peasant agrarian society, completely self reliant, without western medicine, technology, education, etc. Anyone that was perceived as a threat, such as doctors, teachers, engineers, etc were murdered. Their entire families would be killed as well, including children and infants, following their mantra “to dig up the grass, one must also dig up the roots”. Many of these people would be horrifically tortured and then taken to the killing fields to be clubbed to death with rudimentary farming tools or as in the case of infants smashed against a tree. The Khmer Rouge did not want to waste bullets.

Most of the population was enslaved and forced to farm for rice, eating only very limited rations.  They were also tortured and killed for the most minor of infractions. Ultimately the Khmer Rouge would kill 1.7 – 2.5 million people through execution, starvation and disease.

A war between Cambodia and Vietnam in 1978 would push the Khmer Rouge out of power. They would flee to the Cambodian Thai boarder and hold out there throughout the 80s.

Even after the disgusting atrocities of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were brought to light in 1979, the United States and the UN would continue to recognize the Khmer Rouge as the legitimate government of Cambodia until about 1990. They would even hold a seat in the UNs General Assembly. This was likely because of the Khmer Rouge's opposition to Vietnam and as the enemy's enemy they were supported.

We did not take a lot of pictures while touring the Prison and Killing Fields out of respect, some of these have been sourced.

While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.

Children to be tortured and then beat to death with crude farm tools.

Even the chair you sit in to be photographed is dehumanizing, strangely contrived and precise.

When this tree was discovered they could not figure out how all the bone fragments got embedded in it. Then they were informed that this tree was used to smash the babies against as a form of execution. 

 We visited both sites in February 2014. The S21 Prison is in town (Phnom Penh) and the Killing Fields are about a 20 minute Tuk Tuk ride to the edge of town. You can hire a Tuk Tuk to take you to both and they will wait while you tour one before the other. Most people do the Killing Fields first but we did the prison first to follow the path of the prisoners (they would be moved from the Prison to the Killing Fields for execution). We really felt this was the most meaningful way to tour them.

~ Jason