Killing Fields

Though fellow marxist dictators Stalin and Mao killed more people in absolute numbers, Pol Pot takes the cake in when it comes to pushing the principles of communism to the outer limits and killing more people in relative numbers in the process.
Within weeks after taking control of Cambodia (or Democratic Kampuchea as it was called by the Khmer Rouge regime and their left wing fans in the West) in 1975, most of the city population was deported to the countryside. Cities were considered decadent by the KR and so were city dwellers, who were therafter subjected to slave labour in the countryside. Everybody was to wear the same black payama's. Absence of all mod cons like clocks, electric light, radio's, the abolishment of education and money supposedly would help to realise the ultimate communist utopia.
During the 4 years the KR were in charge, they murdered 2 million cambodians. Their victims were initially anybody remotely intellectual (wearing glasses, speaking a foreign language), most Vietnamese and members of other minorities, lateron the killing became more random, until the Vietnamese invasion brought this nightmare to a halt in 1979. Pol Pot and some 200.000 followers fled to Thailand. To this day, small pockets of Khmer Rouge still exist in remote places in the jungle.

Due to this sad history, two of the main attractions of Phnom Penh are the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide and the Choeung Ek Killing Fields just outside of the city limits.
Tuol Sleng used to be a school before The Khmer Rouge turned it into the infamous S-21 prison. Between 1975 and 1979 over a 17.000 were held in detention here, usually for a short period. After they were interrogated and photographed, most of them were taken to Choeung Ek and clubbed to death.


In the museum a documentary film about the life in those years is shown every morning at 10 o'clock. Survivors, both inmates and jailors relate about those horrible times. After that one can visit the complex, with or without a guide and wander through the class rooms clumsily turned into interrogation room and cells. Together with the exhibition of pictures of the inmates during the most awful moments of their life, it's a sadding experience.

Killing Fields like the one at Choeung Ek are found all over the country. It's rewarding to hire a guide. There's hardly any Cambodian around who doesn't have stories to tell about what happened to their family and country. Their experiences which will help you to see some more depth to this place, which is basically a series of holes in the ground filled with water and fragments of human remains. Most of the bones and skulls are collected and put in a huge, glass shrine on the site of the fields.

Peter

1975-1979 yillari arasinda Pol Pot rejimi sirasinda 2 milyon insanin katledildigi Kambocya, hala yaralarini tam sarabilmis degil. Halk oldukca fakir, turizm en onemli gelir kaynaklari. Karsilastigimiz herkesin mutlaka bir yakini katliamda oldurulmus. Hitler'den sonra dunyanin yasadigi en buyuk katliam Khmer Rouge tarafindan gerceklestirilmis. Pol Pot kendi irkindan okuma yazma bilen herkesi, gozluk takanlari bile acimadan yok eden mantiksal sinirlarin cok otesinde bir diktator.

Tuol Sleng'de her sabah saat 10'da o gunlere ait bir belgesel gosterimi var.
Burasi eskiden okul iken Pol Pot doneminde hucrelere ayirilarak, iskence odalari ve hapishane olarak kullanilmis.
Killing Fields, ulkenin her yerine dagilmis olan ceset tarlalarindan sadece biri. Burda olenlerin anisina bir mozale yapilmis. Bugun bile yururken yagmurla yuzeye cikan kemiklere rastlayabiliyorsunuz.

Ozden.