Killing Fields

Today we went to the Killing Field near Phnom Penh. We drove out in a taxi, and spent about an hour wandering around the site. Estimates are that 8,000 plus people were killed in this former orchard. Today, you walk around beautiful grassy grounds with trees and butterflies, and try, not successfully, to imagine the horror of the place. Then you look down and realize that the white bits in the paths are bones that were never disinterred for the memorial, and that the multiple depressions in the grass are where they dug up mass graves. You pass by the "magic tree", so called because that's where they hung loudspeakers to drown out the sounds made by the victims.

At the center of the site is a 4-5 story tall stupa which contains the skulls found in the mass graves they exhumed, stacked in layers atop a pile of clothes found in the graves. It's hard to imagine that people could do this to one another.

We have chosen not to go to the Tuol Sleng torture museum. Most of the people who died in this killing field were first tortured here. Apparently the Khmer Rouge documented the deaths, and the museum includes photos of victims as well as the devices used for torture. Richard and I both feel that this is a place we should see, but that it is not a place that the boys are ready to see. I don't know if this is the right choice.