In 1975, the army of Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge) marched into the city of Phnom Penh, hence starting the darkest moment in human history. Pol Pot was the leader of Kampuchea Communist Party and was eagerly imposing socialism since seizing power on 17 April 1975. In just 3 years of his reign, he systematically killed around 3millions of the 8millions population Cambodian(around 21% of the whole populations). School was closed, home was torn apart, factories abandoned and Cambodia became a living hell.
Initially, he interrogated anyone whom he suspected as the rebel and kill them. But sooner and later, he became more and more paranoid, until he started seeing enemies everywhere, even among his own families. In the end, alot of innocent men being interrogated and forced to admit crime they never commit and accused other innocent men of being members of the rebel just to stop the beating and excessive punishments. These people were first been detained and tortured in Tuol Sleng Detention Centre, then Killed in Choeung Ek Killing field.
Cheoung Ek Genocidal Center
In 1979, when Pol Pot's regime was defeated by the Vietnamese and went into hiding, they uncovered the truth about this place, with more than 40 mass graves unearthed. Most of the prisoners being send to this place blind folded, naked and tied up. They were just slaughtered like pigs and thrown into these pits. After months and years of tortured in Tuol Sleng Detention Center, most of them were just relieved that all these sufferings are going to come to an end and they were actually very happy to die and end this miserable life.
The exact site of the killing field
Automated Guide Systems.....comes with multiple language functions.....even Bahasa Malaysia was available~
Museum with alot of pictures
Short video session of the dark bloody history
The Buddhist Stupa built to contain the remaining bones of all the victims
More than 8000 skeletons were exhumes with alot more being buried and untouched
The biggest mass grave around the field with 450 prisoners executed in a single day!!!
How were they executed? You might be guessing gun....but no, they used hammer, axe, and alot of other medieval tools. Never thought that mankind at the 70's was capable of being this barbaric and brutal!
Smaller mass graves.....
At this particular spot they killed all the women and children......youngest was less than few months old..... How they were killed? Just grab the babies by their ankle, swing them over the tree...Bang.... and then throw into the pit!!! No joke! At the mentioned of this method while listening to the auto tour explanation and pictures showing how it was done, I can feel all my hair standing at their ends....chills ran down my spinal cord.....
The Magic Tree...but no miracles had happened here.....simply because they hang a loud speaker here broadcasting Cambodian traditional songs just to masked the screaming of all the victims being executed here together with the sounds of hammer, axe and other blunt tools finding their targets.
The whole tour took more than an hour if you spend time listening to all these stories at each stations.
Toul Sleng Genocidal Museum
Before these poor folks were send to the killing field, they probably endured weeks and months of tortured here in Toul Sleng. Till the extend that most of them wish to die, to commit suicide but was prevented to even decide their own death. Toul Sleng used to be a school which was turned into a detention center under Pol Pot's regime. The victims ranges from politicians to professionals and even Pol Pot's own soldiers!
Nowadays, it has a gloomy outlook, bearing the weight of an agonizing history
The last 14 victims who died here before Pol Pot's army fled the country.....Only 6 persons walked out of this place alive....others either died during the interrogation, or simply killed in Cheoung Ek.
Example of one of the detention room...of course not so spacious......During that time, it was fulled with beds and cuffs
Used to be a nicely built school
When you thought such things only happened in movies.....
Prisoners will be tied head down and whacked until they pass out, then they will be lowered into the vat fulled with stinking water, to wake them up and continue the whack!
Saw the hook? For tying the prisoners head down
These were tools used to torture prisoners
Such medieval and barbaric act
These were tools used to torture and killed all their prisoners
Prevented from killing themselves, just to have more fun torturing these poor souls
So that the detainee can't jump off the building in desperation of killing themselves.....
So that the detainee can't jump off the building in desperation of killing themselves.....
A solitary cell.........even pigs had larger area than this
Just a small hole for food......
sickening....
Hitler killed Jews out of hatred, the Japanese killed Chinese because of rage and experiments, just like the Israeli kills the Palestinian for power and control; but none of these regimes ever kill their own people and nations. What kind of living creatures enjoy torturing and killing their own kinds? Perhaps only human were capable of such deeds....of causing great agony and suffer to their own kind both physically and emotionally just for self benefits, sometimes without any reasons.....some pretty vague one perhaps.......
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