The killing tree, Choeung Ek

We are picked up at 8am and head to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which is a former high school that was used as the notorious Security Prison (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to its fall in 1979. Tuol Sleng means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "Strychnine Hill" and it was only one of at least 150 execution centres in the country.  As many as 20,000 prisoners there were later killed.  Its a harrowing experience and as you walk through the cells and the rooms where torture was carried out there are photographs of many of the prisoners staring out at you.  Although mostly Cambodian, there were a few westerners and prisoners from other countries who also died here or at the nearby killing fields.  There were only 12 known survivors.


Next we head to the killing fields of Choeung Ek.  Choeung Ek is about 17 km south of Phnom Penh and is the best-known of The Killing Fields sites, where the Khmer Rouge regime executed over one million people between 1975 and 1979. 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 from Tuol Sleng.
This tree was found to have blood, bone and brains on it and it appears that the executioners battered babies and small children against it before throwing them into mass graves.  There is a large memorial stupa at the site which has acrylic glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls, many of which have been shattered or smashed in.  Human bones and clothes still litter the site and more make their way to the surface each time it rains.  You walk through with headphones and a guided tour so, apart from this, the place is silent and you have lots of time to reflect on what went on there.  

A tough but interesting day.