Snackpacking in Asia

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The killing fields was a mass grave site.

In the past 20th century, on the Cambodian soil, the clique of Pol Pot Criminals has committed a heinous genocidal act. They massacred the population with atrocity in large scale which the world had never met.

They wanted to build a world without class. No rich, no poor and no middle class. All should be equal. Through that they killed 3.3 Million Cambodian citizens. The Khmer Rouge called the people and forced to call each other “Comerades”. To imply that all were the same. Interesting was that the citizen didn’t know who was in charge. Who was the prime minister? who was the responsible? Nobody knew who was the leader.

Towards the end of 1980, it was discovered: 86 out of 129 mass graves were unearthed and 8’985 corpses were found. One of the graves contained 166 corpses without heads and another, more than 100 women whose majority were naked with their babies skulls beside them. The biggest mass grave they found contained up to 450 corpses.

How bitter were they when seeing their beloved children, wives, husbands, brothers or sisters were seized and tightly bound and taken to the mass graves while they were waiting for their turn to come and share the same tragic lot?
This clique fo Criminals wanted to transform Cambodian people into a group who knew and understood nothing and always bent their heads to carry out the orders of ANKAR (KAMPUCHEA Communist Party) blindly.

They educated and transformed the young people and adolescents whose hearts are pure, gentle and modest into odious executioners who dared to kill the innocents and even their own parents, relatives or friends.

This clique of Pol Pot Criminals burnt the market place; abolished monetary system; eliminated national culture; destroyed schools, hospitals, pagodas, and priceless monuments such as Prasat Angkor which is a source of pure national pride. They did whatever to get rid of the Khmer character and transform Cambodian soil into a mountain of bones and a sea of blood and tears which were deprived of cultural infrastructure, civilzation and national identity became a desert of great destruction that overturned the Cambodian and drove it back on the Stone Age.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, a former chief of the notorious S-21 torture prison of the Khmer Rouge, was recognized in front of prosecutors of the hybrid genocidal tribunal that his subordinates killed babies and children prisoners by sometimes holding their legs and smashing their heads against the trees. Strictly adhering to their slogan,

"clearing grasses, it shall dig its entire root off"

the Khmer Rouge arrested entire families including babies and children to avoid revenge later in life. He learned about Khmer Rouge policy on detained children: "There is no gain to keep them, and they might take revenge on you". Douch said: "At first did not recognize the horrendous images of the babies being smashing against the tree, but after seeing photographs I recalled that it had happened. This action (babies smashed against tree) was done by my subordinates. I my self do not blame my subordinates because they worked for me. I am criminally responsible for killing babies, young children and teenagers". The Killing Tree remains at Choeung Ek Genocidal Center as evidence of this notorious and merciless action.

The prison chief of Khmer Rouge is not only the first Khmer Rouge official to stand trial for the regime atrocities but is also the only one to express remorse for his criminal work in the past. The other four former senior leaders who are awaiting trial deny knowledge of any atrocities. The trial brought Duch to Choeung Ek "Killing Field" and Genocidal Museum S-21 in Phnom Penh was something that he could never forget. Most victims were tortured before they were taken to Choeung Ek where they all were executed.

Duch said: "I would like to emphasize that I am responsible for the crimes committed at S-21, especially the torture and execution of people there. May I be permitted to apologize to the survivors of the regime and also the loved ones of those who died brutally during that time."

The regime was toppled by Vietnamese troops on the 7th January 1979.

On 7 January 1979, the army of the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation discovered and rescued survivors from S-21 prison.
S-21 was one out of 196 prisons in the country. It was under the direct command of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. Anybody taken to S-21 didn’t survive. The party persecuted anyone they considered as an "enemy of the revolution" : members of the former Lon Nol government and army, diplomats, intellectuals and a few foreigners as well as a high number of Khmer Rouge themselves.

Of these so-called "traitors", the families and the social networks were targeted too. More than 18,063 victims have been identified, but perhaps up to 20,000 men, women and children were killed at S-21 and Choeung Ek, outside Phnom Penh.

At the end, justice was found for the cambodian people.

Cambodia first approached the United Nation for assistance to conduct a trial for the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge in 1997. Since 1999, the Royal Government of Cambodia has worked with the UN for creation of a special court called "Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea (ECCC)", or simply called the Khmer Rouge Trial. It became fully operational in June 2007. Samdech Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the RGC, stated: "Now the time has come for those responsible for planning and directing this horror to be held accountable for the crimes. After years of negotiating with the United Nations, we have established a new Cambodia court that including international judges and staff. This is the first court in the world of its kind."

Although the top leader of the Khmer Rouge, the Brother Number One, Pol Pot died under house arrested in 1998 and some others died and killed, there are four "senior leaders" and one who is "the most responsible" of the Khmer Rouge being arrested. This leading figure, Duch - the chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 torture prison, ordered his underlings to bring prisoners to be executed in the killing field Choeung Ek. While four senior leaders of The Khmer Rouge have been in provisional detention awaiting trial, the former S-21 chief is still on trial since March 30, 2009. At trial, he admitted that he ran the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison and apologized for crimes against humanity, accepting blame for the extermination of 15’000 people who passed through the regime's notorious main prison, Tuol Sleng, before most of them were executed in Choeung Ek. Duch faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and premeditated murder for his role in the Khmer Rouge regime. Four rare living survivors from the Khmer Rouge's notorious central prison appeared as witnesses proceeding testimony in the hybrid criminal court. They are Van Nath (63 years old), Bou Meng (78 years old), Chum Mey (79 years old), and Norng Chan Phal (39 years old).En savoir plus