While in Cambodia, it felt necessary and right to remember the countries recent history. To this end we visited both the S-21 prison and one of the Killing Fields.

The S-21 prison was once a school which was then converted into Cambodia’s most important prison during the Khmer Rouge regime. 14,000 prisoners were tortured and killed here, and only seven survived. It was a terrible place, and it is quite hard to even figure out our feelings about our visit there.

S21 Prison Rules

Photos of S21 prisoners. There were rooms and rooms of these.

The Killing Fields are half an hour away from the city. Thousands of prisoners were transported here by the Khmer Rouge to be killed. In the early days, most were killed immediately after arrival. However, in the latter days the guards could not keep up so some prisoners were kept overnight. Bullets were too expensive to be ‘wasted’ on these people, so the regime used anything available – machetes, sticks, cleaning rods, or any type of brutal force. In order to disguise their terrible deeds, and to ensure the prisoners were dead, the bodies were heaped in mass graves and had chemicals sprinkled over them to hide the smell of rotting bodies. Loud music was played so the neighbours wouldn’t hear the cries of the victims. No-one knew what was going on here until after the Vietnamese liberation, when a starving local man stumbled into the area while looking for food. There he found mass graves, and the killing tree which was used to dispose of young children. Even now as you are walking around there are scraps of clothing, bones and teeth of the victims making their way to the surface of the soil.

The government have built a Stupa to commemorate the dead, which is a beautiful building. It houses the skulls that have been found on the site. Although visiting the Killing Fields is immensely sad and sobering, the site has been very well and sensitively handled. You walk around at your own pace, listening to an audio commentary through headphones. There is lots of historical information, both about the site and about the time in general. There are many accounts from survivors, and stories of those who were not so lucky. Appallingly, Western governments continued to support the regime long after they were removed from power, and long after these atrocious acts were discovered, both financially and by giving prominent members seats at the UN.