Phnom Penh : Choeung Kee Genocide Center

Historical sites that attract national and international tourists, the Choeung Kee Killing Fields Museum (Choeung Kee Genocide Center) is located approximately 15 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh, in Rolous Village, Choeung Kee Sangkat, Dangkor District, Phnom Penh. It is a historical site that attracts national and international tourists who want to see firsthand the brutal killing sites during the Pol Pot genocidal regime... According to documents, during the Khmer Rouge regime, the killing fields were a place to receive people who were sent from Tuol Sleng or S-21, and were also the place where plans were made to kill people whom the Khmer Rouge accused of being enemies of the organization. According to sources from the Choeungkang area, who were lucky enough to escape death during the Khmer Rouge regime and returned to their hometown, the hilly area in Roluos village, called Choeungkang Lake, which was a former Chinese cemetery and part of the village's rice fields, measuring more than 2 hectares, was surrounded by a zinc fence and barbed wire as high as the head of the Khmer Rouge, as a place to kill people who were prisoners taken from Tuol Sleng prison, which was controlled by the warden of Tuol Sleng prison, Mr. Kaing Gek Eav, alias Duch, without allowing anyone to approach. The killing site remained a secret from 1975 to 1979, but revolutionary songs were often heard playing on a microphone from the killing site to drown out the sounds of pain from the prisoners who were being tortured and killed in the area. thumb After the liberation on January 7, it was discovered that the above area was a place of execution. When the bodies were taken out of the pit, they found sticks, bamboo poles, pipes, and stones, blood stains on the stones, sticks, and some of the burial pits were filled with poison, and some were not yet buried. Some of the bodies were wrapped in cloth, their faces were covered with parrot feathers, and their hands were covered with rotting flesh. There was also a prison in this area. The victims who died here were mostly educated people, and the murders were often electrocuted, poisoned, and beaten with stones, bamboo poles, etc. According to documents, the victims who were killed in Choeung Kea were nearly 20,000. Documents from the Choeung Kea Genocide Center describe the massacre of people during the Khmer Rouge regime as the hell of the 20th century. The same document shows that from 1976 to 1978, nearly 20,000 farmers, officials, soldiers, intellectuals, diplomats, foreigners, children, and women were killed by the Khmer Rouge in the Choeung Kea area. In the Choeungkang area, 129 mass graves were found, dug along the edge of a pond near the Choeungkang Lake in 1980. However, only 86 graves were excavated at that time, containing 8,985 bodies. Of these, one large mass grave contained 450. In addition, there was a mass grave for 100 women and children, located next to a French tamarind tree or Chankiri tree, behind the Choeungkang Lake killing center, where the bodies of the children were executed by being smashed to death with tree trunks. Another mass grave contained 166 people, all of whom were headless. In the 1980s, when villagers returned to visit the killing site, they saw a desolate scene, a foul smell, and the smell of blood. There was a dark cell built of corrugated iron with two floors for holding prisoners brought from Tuol Sleng Prison before the executions. In addition, there is a poison tank for the final execution of prisoners and for spraying corpses to prevent the stench from spreading. In 1989, Choeung Kea became a national center for preserving evidence of the brutal and inhumane killings of the Khmer Rouge and a history museum for humanity. Approximately 5,000 skulls, which are placed on a 30-meter-high and 20-meter-wide pedestal, are accompanied by a constant stream of mournful Khmer music. National and international tourists who visit there always feel sorry for the victims who were brutally tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge. It is worth noting that in the Choeung Kea Killing Fields Museum, there is also an exhibition hall displaying photos of Tuol Sleng prison warden Kaing Guek Iew, Khmer Rouge clothing, torture and killing equipment, and a cinema hall for showing documentaries about the Khmer Rouge killing fields regime, Democratic Kampuchea, etc. for tourists to see.