Killing Fields

I visited Choeung Ek killing field today near Phnom Penh - one of over 350 genocide sites scattered throughout Cambodia from the time of Pol Pot in the 1970s. This picture is from the central monument - a Buddhist stupa with a glass-enclosed, 17 level collection of bones sorted by type. The first few levels are all filled with skulls. Above that are long bones, flat bones, jaw bones, etc. Many of the mass graves have been excavated, but there are still bones and scraps of clothing surfacing. Part of the footpath was closed off because of new bones exposed by recent rains. More info and pictures can be found here. The killings were all done quietly with blunt instruments instead of humanely with bullets. One tree is marked where they hung loudspeakers to play patriotic music loudly to cover the sounds of the killing. The most horrible was a tree where they killed the babies by whacking their skulls against it. It's hard to believe that all this evil happened (about 1/3 of the whole Cambodian population was killed in the span of 5 years) - and even worse, it's happened before in many places and is sure to happen again.