December 25, 2007

A True Sad Cambodian History-The Killing Fields

The killing fields was another Nanjing Massacre which brought the Cambodian's History down to the darkest period-only torture and pain could be felt.

The massacre happened in the year of 1975-1979, when Pol Pot,the leader of Khmer Rouge(a communist group) took power in the capital of Cambodia-Phnom Penh.They chased away all of the city dwellers to countryside and executed educated people regardless of genders,races as well as ages.Then they turned a former school in Phnom Penh into a prison to keep all these people in it,they were in fact waiting to be killed because it was in fact a door to the death.

This was the former school which was then turned to a prison.





There are 2 floors in each block.Each block was surrouded by a electrical fence to trap all victims who were caught.Those who attempted to escape would either be electrocuted or murdered once they were caught by the soldiers.



On the second floor,they have these cells to keep the victims before they were sentenced to death.Each "room" was used to keep one victim and the size of a room is even smaller than an usual public toilet.Victims were seperated according to their status,the above picture was used to keep people who had higher social status such as lawyers and doctors.Labours on the other hand were hung by hands in a shared room.They were not allowed to turn their back nor to sit unless they were permitted by the soldiers,those who offended would be killed immediately.


The first floor is divided to many rooms with a same function-the killing room.People were sent in to be tortured to death each day through different methods such as digging out their eyeballs,cutting throat,operating stomach and some other beyond imagination ways were used.


Many children and women were buried in a mass grave.This was still not the worst because the communist also bang the children on the tree and threw them into the river WITH THE WITNESS OF THEIR MOTHER,they brought the mother of each child to witness the death of their children. Some were thrown into the sky and killed with weapons and knives.

The massacre ended in the year of 1979 when France declared Cambodia as an independant country. However, atleast more than 3 million people were killed which was about half of the population of the country at that time.This is also a reason why we hardly see those aged ones in Cambodia nowadays.Part of the skeletons are stil kept in a huge glass shelf until now.The massive number of victims were so incredible that it could be used to surround the entire Cambodia to form their country map in which those who lived in countryside did it after the incident to symbolise that the huge spread of location those victims were from.

The visit to the prison was so unforgettable that I did not take any photos of it but I spent all the time walking past every corner to picture all of these,the intensed pain those of them who had gone through, the innocent blood that flown through all over the places.They also prepare a few rooms to put on as much pictures of the victims as possible, thousands and thousands of photos flashed through my sight in which I could not remember every of their faces despite how hard I tried to.

*Sometimes,We need to understand and feel the pain of the others to remind ourselves that we already have the greatest things in life*

Photos Provided by:http://www.galenfrysinger.com/killing_fields.htm

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