Photo. This photo is one
of hundred haunting photographs of helpless Cambodians facing death were taken in
the secret prison Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh, between the middle
of 1975 and the first few days of 1979.
Members of the group, ranging in age
from 10 to 55 years old, believed that the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was still
in power when they were arrested by the Laotian authorities in November, The
Cambodia Daily reported (ref. International Herald Tribune The Associated Press,
Thursday, December 2, 2004).
Other sources reports that there were 40 people in the
group, and that they were fleding from Vitname troops when the invaded the
country. They feared that the Vietnamese would kill they, but now it`s 15 years
ago since the Vietnamese troops left Cambodia.
The memories from the Tuol Sleng prison symbolises human`s brutality and evilness at the worst. After torture
and interrogation, sometimes stretching over several months, all of
these men, women and children were brutally executed. There was no
mercy!
As many as
16,000 people are believed to have passed through the gates of the infamous
prison, but only 14 are thought to have survived. The former prison is now a
memorial exhibition called the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
|
Photo. The author of this article, Stein
Morten Lund at Tuol Sleng. "My visit to this former prison for few
years ago made me sick. I could not understand the creativity of human
evilness!". |
 |
During their
rule, it is estimated that 2 million Cambodians died by starvation, torture or
execution. 2 million Cambodians represented approximately 30% of the Cambodian
population during that time.
The Khmer Rouge
turned Cambodia to year zero. They banned all institutions, including stores,
banks, hospitals, schools, religion, and the family. Everyone was forced to work
12 - 14 hours a day, every day.
Choeng Ek - the killing fields
In Cambodia,
nine miles (14.5 kilometres) from Phnom Penh, the "killing fields" of Choeung Ek
have become a tourist attraction, horrifying and fascinating.
Choeung Ek is
one of thousands of other such sites around the country where the Khmer Rouge
practiced genocide. The famous movie "Killing Fields" cover the dramatic
incidents in Cambodia at that time.
In the area where the
cattle usually graze, pieces from human bones where spread around on the
ground, and sometimes more of them became visible after heavy rains. The
smell was also terrible.
|
Photo. Stein Morten Lund (author of
the article) at Choeng Ek.
It was
impossible to not be emotional affected by all the gruesome stories and
visible signs on humans` brutality. |
 |
|
The Cambodian holocaust will never be
forgotten!
The Khmer Rouge is believed to be responsible for the deaths of
at least 1.7 million Cambodians, maybe so many as 2 millions, from
starvation, disease, overwork and execution during the 1970s.
Pol Pot
died when he was hiding in the jungle in 1998.
Photo. Memorial monument for the dead people on the Killing Fields.
|
 |
The sight of 8,000 human skulls in a glass
shrine in the monument turns visitors into silence, and make them cry. They are
like ghosts coming back to haunt their executers.
|
Photo. Humans
skulls displayed in the monument at Choeung Ek, killing fields.
Few people managed to escape! |
 |
The Laotian authorities arrested
the escaped Cambodian hill tribe people after they wandered into a disputed border
area. The group, which included two former Khmer Rouge soldiers, had
not had contact with outsiders.
The missing hill tribe people were
reunited with family members on Tuesday during a ceremony in Banlung, the
capital of Ratanakiri
Province, in
Cambodia's northeast
corner.
Stein Morten Lund, 2
December 2004
Additional
information
Read more about
it on Herold Tribune
Internation Herold News Cambodia .
Historical
events in Cambodia:
1860-1954
Cambodia under French control.
1970
United
States and South
Vietnamese forces invade.
1969-75 A US
supported regime holds power.
1975-78 Pol Pot
in power. His Rhmer Rouge regime killed between one and three million people.
1978
Vietnam
invaded Cambodia,
Pol Pot escaped, and US and Thailand
support Khmer Rouge rebels against Vietnamese backed government
1990 United
Nations peace keeping forces move in until the 1993 election.
1998 Next general election due in July when
Cambodian People's party expected to win a majority.
E-mail this
Print this
