Visiting the Killing Fields

Stupa at the Killing Fields in Choeung Ek.

As I sat on the bench, looking out across the gravel path at the pond, it could have been easy to forget. It could have been the simplest thing to pretend that this was just what it appeared to be: a beautiful garden, with trees and green space and little chicks running after their mother hens. But the voice in the audio tour around my ears and the shards of bone and cloth poking out of the ground forced me to face reality. This was not a beautiful, peaceful place. This was a place of horror, where thousands of people were brutally murdered. This was a Killing Field.

From 1975-79, Cambodia's government, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, imprisoned and killed anyone seen as a threat to their strict communist ideals. This included, but was not limited to, anyone with connections to the former government or foreign governments, professionals, intellectuals, ethnic and religious minorities, religious leaders, and their families- including children and babies. Over a million people were arrested and many were tortured into confessions. They were then brought to what we now call Killing Fields, where they were blindfolded with their hands behind their backs, made to kneel next to a pit that would be their graves, and then bashed in the back of the head and neck until they were dead.

After the Khmer Rouge fell from power, these Killing Fields, covered in mass graves, were discovered by the public. The graves were excavated so that the victims could be buried with dignity, in the Buddhist tradition. Still today though, they are still finding fragments bones and clothing scattered throughout these mass killing and burial sites.

One of the first things I did upon arriving in Cambodia, was visit the Killing Field in Choeung Ek, which has been establish as a memorial to those who were killed under Pol Pot's regime. It was a chilling and heart breaking visit to say the least. It was a reminder of why I am interested in the work that I do. Humans, despite their great ability for love and compassion, can, and have over and over again throughout history, enacted horrors upon each other for little or no reason. I hope that the work I do can contribute to a world where events like this one will never take place again.

I remember and pray for the victims of genocide and war and injustice in Cambodia and throughout the world. I pray for all those who have been effected by such devastation. And I pray that we all work towards a world where such things are unimaginable.