Phnom Penh Tour: Killing Field

Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Sunday, 12 Feb 2017

After a short rest at City Centre Hotel, kami pun memulakan perjalanan menuju Killing Field. Perjalanan dari hotel kami nak sampai ke Killing Field ni boleh tahan jauh juga, about 40minutes by tuk tuk. Sampai tertido jugalah kami nak tunggu sampai. Bagi aku, Killing Field is a must visit place kalau ke Phnom Penh tapi hanya untuk yang kuat semangat saja.

This Killing Field also known as Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. It is basically one of the many killing fields spread all over Cambodia where mass killing took place during the Khmer Rouge Regime. Entry fee is USD3. Camera is free of charge and photography is allowed inside the center. Audio Guides are also available at the ticket counter with additional charge of USD3 with option of many languages. Bahasa Malaysia is also available.

Kita orang amik tour with Audio Guide in Bahasa. Sebab aku rasa kalau kau jalan jer without the Audio Guide maybe tak dapat banyak info sangat. Bila ada Audio guide ni, at least, every check point yang kita pergi tu akan diceritakan lebih detail lagi. And some of the checkpoint, siap ada kisah mangsa yang masih hidup di zaman khmer rouge. Tour with Audio guide will take approximately 1-2hrs to complete tapi depend jugalah orang yang mendengarnya. Kalau tak nak spend lama boleh je nak skip kisah mangsa-mangsa zaman khmer rouge terdahulu.

Choeung Ek Genocidal Center a.k.a Killing Field

The Fact

Choeung Ek is the site of a former orchard and mass grave of victims of the Khmer Rouge killed between 1975 and 1979 - about 17 km south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia is the best-known of the sites known as The Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge regime executed over one million people between 1975 and 1979. This mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of the dead were former political prisoners who were kept by the Khmer Rouge in their Tuol Sleng detention center. After the discovery of the site in 1979, the Vietnamese transformed the site into a memorial and stored skulls and bones in an open-walled wooden memorial pavilion. Eventually, these remains were showcased in the memorial's centerpiece stupa, or Buddhist shrine. The stupa has acrylic glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly.(source: wikipedia)

The memorial stupa

Dari kaunter tiket menuju killing field, akan kelihatan struktur menara yang agak tinggi & cantik architecture nya. Nampak cantik dari jauh tapi hakikatnya inside the tower is full of human skulls at every level. Tapi kami tak masuk pun lagi just tengok dari luar jer sebab kalau ikut Audio map route, this memorial stupa will be our last stop. Ok, nanti kita sambung lagi. 

Audio stop tour list & languages available

Macam mana nak guna Audio guide ni? Just follow & listen carefully to the instruction. And walk according to the map. Cuba hayati & fahami apa yang cuba disampaikan di setiap perhentian. 

Audio Tour instruction for you to follow

Killing Field map

History

Kisah kekejaman ini bermula pada tahun 1975 apabila Khmer Rouge regime di bawah pimpinan Pol Pot, a Cambodian Communist Revolutionary, mengambil alih kuasa di Phnom Penh dan secara perlahan-lahan menawan seluruh Kemboja. Selepas mendapat kuasa, beliau menghapuskan semua yang berkaitan dengan kehidupan seharian, tabiat, kerja, budaya, tradisi atau apa sahaja amalan yang terdapat dalam masyarakat kemboja ketika itu dengan tujuan memulakan hidup baru dari awal. Khmer Rouge regime memaksa orang ramai untuk keluar dari bandar masuk ke bidang pertanian. Alasan yang diberikan kepada mereka untuk berpindah adalah ancaman bom dari US Bomber Aircraft dan mereka juga diberitahu bahawa pemindahan itu hanya sementara. Mereka diarah untuk keluar tanpa mengambil banyak barang-barang kerana mereka dijanjikan akan kembali dalam masa 2-3 hari. Tetapi sesiapa yang dipindahkan, tidak pernah kembali lagi. Hampir seluruh bandar Phnom Penh sepi dan orang ramai terpaksa bekerja di Cambodia Fields, di mana mereka telah dilayan & diseksa dengan dasyat sekali.

Mereka yang tidak dapat bekerja atau yang membantah, akan dibunuh atau dipukul hingga mati. Majoriti orang dibawa ke sini adalah dari Tuol Sleng Detention Center (S-21), will story on next post visit to S-21. Normally, mereka yang dibawa ke sini, akan dibawa secara senyap pada lewat petang hanya untuk dibunuh sehingga mati dan tiada sesiapa yang berhampiran menyedari activiti kejam ini.

In order to save bullets, the executions were often carried out using poison, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks, axes and other killing toopls. In some cases, the children and infants of adult victims were killed by having their heads bashed against the trunks of Chankiri trees, and then, they were thrown into the pits alongside their parents. The rationale was to stop them growing up and taking revenge for their parents' deaths. To suppress the noise and moaning of the victims, they hanged loudspeakers on the tree and played local Khmer music at a loud volume on them. And to hide the smells out from the body lying in open pits, they sprayed chemicals.

More than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War (1970–1975).

For more info & knowledge, boleh baca sendiri kat wikipedia about Khmer Rouge & Killing Field.


Let’s start the tour...


Caution: Some Pictures of this post can be disturbing!!! 

Audio Tour stop no. 3

Audio Tour stop no. 6

To save the ammunition and bullets, the killing tools such as shackles, leg irons, axes, hammers etc. are used

One of the mass grave at the killing field

A grave site at Killing Field

Ada cerita disebalik pokok ni at stop no. 10

Ada tasek kat belakang ni

Ada beautiful landscape behind the Killing Field

Mass grave of 166 victims without heads

A pile of the clothes belonging to the victims of the Killing Fields

Sebelum menjadi killing field, tempat ni merupakan bekas perkuburan Chinese

Another mass grave inside the killing field

Be carefull... NOT to

Mass grave of more than 100 victims. Children & women whose majority was naked.

The Killing Tree against which the children were banged

Bones of the victims

Teeth of the victims

Di Killing Field inilah tempat di mana mangsa yang dibunuh dengan kejam dicampak & ditanam

This Magic Tree is used as a tool to hang a loudspeaker

Bones of the victims

The remaining clothes of the victims at Killing Field

Pakaian mangsa yang masih boleh kelihatan

Bukti mangsa ditanam dengan kejam sekali

Human Skulls at memorial stupa

The skulls are arranged according to age

Human skulls at the every level of Memorial Stupa

The skulls are arranged according to victim's age

There are more than 5,000 human skulls

Killing tools used to kill the victims are also inside this stupa

There is also a museum in a corner of this memorial site. This museum has a detailed presentation on the discovery of killing fields, its history, its traitors and tools used during those killings. Very good place to learn more. Tayangan video about this killing field pun ada juga. So, sila tonton.

Don't forget to visit this museum before you leave

We spend almost 3 hrs inside this Killing Field. Lama agaknya Dalan menunggu kami.

Lawatan ke Choeung Ek Memorial Center merupakan sesuatu yang luarbiasa. Emosi aku agak terganggu juga bila dengar cerita kekejaman para mangsa thru the Audio Tour but I managed to control. 

Dalam negara kita sibuk mengejar arus pembangunan & kemajuan, masih ada negara lain yang hidup dalam peperangan, ketakutan & penindasan. And masih ada juga segelintir yang masih struggle nak terus hidup. Memang tak boleh nak bayangkan nasib mereka yang terdahulu.

Syukurlah Malaysia masih aman walaupun hakikatnya rakyat masih struggle nak terus survive dengan economy yang kejam sekarang ini.

Peace no WAR.

After visiting the Killing Fields, we came out from the memorial with a heavy heart.