The Horrors of Cambodia’s History

Disclaimer: I am not a historian. These are stories of what I have seen, heard and learned from my visits.

All images used below are taken from the Choeung Ek Museum and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, both of which were the actual locations of these killings. Photos below were taken by me unless specified otherwise.

I had a business trip to Bangkok last March, and I thought to myself, ‘Hey, since I’m already here, I might as well give Phnom Penh a visit.’ It was a one-hour flight, and I was looking for an excuse to take a break.

For some unknown reason, I have always had a fascination with Cambodia. When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me how she wanted to visit Angkor Wat someday, and I managed to fulfill that dream for the both of us last year. Now, I wanted to see the tragic history of Cambodia with the Khmer Rouge.

Perfect excuse, right?

The Khmer Rouge & The Cambodian Genocide

This part is an oversimplification. I cannot overstate how simplified these chain of events are, and I suggest you do your own research. Here’s a quick link to Wikipedia’s article on the Cambodian genocide.

If you’re not so familiar with Cambodia’s history, let me catch you up to speed:

• The Communist Party of Kampuchea (known as the Khmer Rouge), ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
  • Kampuchea is Cambodia’s native name, similar to how India’s native name is Bharat.
  • Khmer is pronounced ka-ma-ya or k-mai. Westerners pronounce this as kamir, which is also accepted by the locals (if you don’t look local).
• Their leader was a vicious man named Pol Pot, who idolized the ways of Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin.
  • Pol Pot had a vision to turn Cambodia into an agrarian utopia, free from class divisions, foreign influence, and urban corruption.
• With Pol Pot’s vision, the following took place:
  • The establishment of forced labor camps;
  • Forced evacuation of cities;
  • The removal of money from society (to which Cambodia still suffers from to this day, which we’ll discuss later);
• In order to achieve his vision, approximately 25% of Cambodia’s total population (around 2 million people) perished, including women, children, and foreign tourists.

In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and toppled his regime, bringing an end to this nightmare in 1999, when the Khmer Rouge was officially dissolved.

Some current-day government officials were part of the original Khmer Rouge, and some have offspring who followed in their footsteps into political power and are currently serving in the Cambodian government.

Pol Pot never expressed genuine regret for his actions, nor did he ever face true justice. Instead, he justified his crimes until the end, blaming others and refusing to acknowledge the full extent of the suffering he caused.

He lived for 19 years after his regime was toppled and died in his sleep in 1998 at the age of 72. Some have suspected that he was poisoned to avoid being taken to trial for his crimes, but this was never proven.

No matter the case, he lived long enough to ruin Cambodia and see it start to recover while he faded into obscurity.

Choeung Ek: The Killing Fields

Click on the images to expand them to be able to read the original inscriptions, but I took the liberty of transcribing them beside each photo (verbatim). These markers were placed on top of the original sites where buildings were demolished when the Khmer Rouge regime fell.

The Dark and Gloomy Detention

Here, it was the place where victims were transported from TUOL SLENG (S-21) and other places in the country to be detained.

Usually, when the truck arrived, the victims were executed immediately. Someday, as the number of victims to be executed was increased up to over 300 per day.

That is why they were detained for execution the next day. The detention was constructed from wood with galvanized steel roof. Its wall was built with two layers of flat wood were to darken and also prevent prisoners seeing each other.

Unfortunately, the dark and gloomy detention was dismantled in 1979.

Truck Stop

Here, it was the place where a truck transporting victims to be exterminated from TUOL SLENG prison (S-21) and other places in the country, stopped. The truck would arrive 2 or 3 times a month. Each truck held 20 to 30 frightened, blindfolded and silent prisoners.

When the truck arrived, the victims were led directly to be executed at the pits or were sent to be detained in the darken and gloomy prison nearby.

After January 07, 1979 one truck remained, but it has been taken away since.

The Executioners’ Working Office

Here, it was the place where executioners stationed and worked permanently at choeung ek. The office as well as the killing field were equipped with electric power which enabled them to conduct executions and to read and sign the rosters that accompanied the victims to the site at the night time.

The Chemical Substances Storage Room

Here, it was the place where chemical substances such as DDT …etc was kept. The executioners scattered these substances over dead bodies of the victims at once after execution.

This action had two purposes: firstly, to eliminate the stench from the dead bodies which could potentially raise suspicion among people working near by the killing field and secondly was to kill off victims who were still alive.

The chemical substance storage room was lost in 1979.

The Killing Tool Storage Room

Here, it was the place where the killing tools such as shackles, leg irons, a hatchet, knives, hoes, digging hoes, shoves, iron ox-cart axles were stored. The storage room was constructed from wood with a galvanized steel roof. These tools were lost in 1979.

The next sets of images come with no inscriptions, so I provided some context. These were based off of what I learned from the audio guide that came with the entry ticket. Please do your own fact-checking.

Mass Grave of 166 Victims Without Heads

From the tour marker, this was were the decapitated bodies of women, children (including babies) and men were buried.

This emitted a foul smell, so when the soldiers stacked bodies, they poured a chemical called DDT (a form of pesticide) to hide the smell.

Rags of Victims’ Clothes

After the mass graves were exhumed in 1980, the left underground rage of victims’ clothes come up after raining, and we collected them to keep on.

In addition to the inscription above, some pieces of cloth are left on the ground. Some were buried with parts sticking out, and others become entwined with the roots of trees that grow around the field.

They said not to rip those pieces of cloth out, as they serve as a vital part of the field’s history.

Mass Grave of more than 100 Victims: Children and Women whose majority were naked

This particular mass grave was right next to The Killing Tree. See more context below.

The Killing Tree (“Chan Kiri Tree”)

Right next to the mass grave displayed above was this tree, decorated by colorful armbands left by visitors who want to dedicate them to the victims.

This tree was the witness to an extremely gruesome activity: the killing of infants and children. The audio guide says Khmer Rouge soldiers took children and infants by the legs, and smashed their heads against the tree until their heads pop. Once they no longer have a head, they are thrown into the mass grave above.

The Magic Tree (“Chrey Tree”)

To mask the screams of children, there was a loud speaker placed here which played extremely loud music, accompanied by the sound of diesel generators.

This was the last thing these victims have heard before suffering a gruesome death.

Choeung Ek Stupa

At the end of the guided audio tour was a stupa. Inside was 17 floors of skulls and bones, gathered from the victims of this genocide.

Today, locals gather outside the stupa and light up incense and put on offerings of fruits and harvest on display to commemorate this tragedy.

Tuol Sleng (S-21) Prison

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is built on top of the original S-21 Prisons where victims of this era were imprisoned.

Pol Pot was paranoid and imprisoned the intellectual class. The prisoners here are mostly those that can speak multiple languages (foreigners), lawyers, doctors, scientists and the like. Of course, there were also a number of regular people imprisoned here of varying ages and careers.

S-21 is a former secondary school, which was turned into a prison when it was overtaken by the Khmer Rouge. The prisons were former classrooms.

The Rules of Prison

1. You must answer according to my questions. Don’t turn them away.
2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making excuses about this or that. You are strictly prohibited to contradict me.
3. Don’t pretend to be ignorant, for you are a chap who dares to thwart the revolution.
4. You must answer my questions immediately without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don’t go on about your minor mistakes or infringements of the moral code or on the essence of the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must absolutely not scream or cry out.
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet, and when I tell you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Don’t make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secrets or your betrayals.
9. If you don’t scrupulously follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes or electric shocks. For every infringement, 10 lashes or 5 shocks.

In case you were wondering what Kampuchea Krom is:

Kampuchea Krom (meaning Lower Cambodia in Khmer) refers to the region in southern Vietnam that was historically part of the Khmer Empire but is now controlled by Vietnam. It includes areas like Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the Mekong Delta, and provinces like Tra Vinh and Soc Trang.

First & Second: Illustration of tortures. Third: Current-day.

Takeaways and Cambodia’s Recovery

This brutal and senseless violence should never be forgotten, for it is only by looking back at history that we can prevent things like this from ever happening again. Let Cambodia’s history be a lesson to never let tyrannical leaders reach absolute power.

Cambodia today is still recovering from its history: the Cambodian Riel is difficult to exchange outside of Cambodia. When I visited Siem Reap in 2024, I had plenty of leftover Riel and was unable to find a currency exchange that would take them (until I found one in Kuala Lumpur, but that place was the only place that took them). They practice a dual-currency system: you can either pay in Riel or in US Dollars.

The disparity of wealth is prominent. There was a huge Adidas store next to a slum area, and a majority of the major roads do not have sidewalks. Malls and buildings are built in front of empty, unkempt fields.

A Cambodian reality TV show, It’s Not a Dream, reunites families torn apart by the Cambodian genocide.

It is a concern that Cambodia may fall into a Chinese debt trap, as most of their recent constructions are funded by China: the Siem Reap airport, the new and soon-to-launch Phnom Penh airport, and a number of their factories, highways and waterways.

I’ve met extremely nice and helpful people, and I hope they continue their path to recovery.