The Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (Killing Fields)

  

 In Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 the Khmer Rouge, a name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, carried out a mass Genocide of one and a half to three milling people.  The Khmer Rouge regime was led by Pol Pot as he planned to create a form agrarian socialism founded on the ideals of Stalinism and Maoism (theories based on political leaders Joseph Staline and Mao Zedong from China).  The Khmer Rouge policies of forced relocation of the population from urban centres, torture, mass executions, use of forced labour, and malnutrition led to the deaths of an estimated 25 percent of the total population.  The Khmer Rouge goal of purifying the people is similar to the goals of Nazi Germany, in attempting to create a "master race", as one Khmer Rouge leader said, it was the "purification of the populace".  The genocide was ended following the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.  Up to 20,000 mass graves, known as the Killing Fields, have been uncovered.
Seeing the fields was not easy as you can imagine from the above information.  Four of us had gone however we all soon drifted from one another as we reflected on what we saw.  We were given audio tours which recounted the events that occurred at different locations throughout the grounds.  Some of the recordings were even from past prisoners who were forced to do labour and who were brutally tortured and rapped.  One story in particular was of a man who had merely been 14 when captured by the Khmer Rouge.  He was about to be executed when an older gentleman, also a captive, took solace over him and begged the Khmer Rouge to let the boy go.  The elder gentleman was then executed in the boys place.  It is selfless acts such as these that make the world Beautiful even in such ugly times.

The Buddhist Stupa where over 5,000 human skulls can be seen

 The fencing around a mass grave where people have left prayer bracelets 

 Mass grave of 450 victims

 Chinese grave with bone and teeth fragments

 Fragments of clothes that have been recovered on the grounds of the killing fields from the victims.  Children's clothes can be seen

 This was the most disturbing of all as they recounted how the Khmer Rouge would grab children by the feet and swing them repeatedly against this tree as their mothers were forced to watch.  The mothers too were then tortured, rapped, and executed

 Bones and teeth

 The skulls within the Stupa

My thoughts and prayers go out to those who suffered then and now.  There is evil within the world but there is also so much good, so let the good shine on as the bad is remembered but not repeated.