The Killing Fields
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For other uses, see Killing field (disambiguation).
For the 1984 film of the same name, see The Killing Fields (film).
A commemorative stupa filled with the skulls of the victims.
Choung Ek Killing Field: The bones of young children who were killed by Khmer Rouge soldiers.The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Communist regime Khmer Rouge, which had ruled the country since 1975. The massacres ended in 1979, when Communist Vietnam invaded the country, which at that time was officially called Democratic Kampuchea, and toppled the Khmers. Estimates of the number of dead range from 1.7 to 2.3 million out of a population of around 7 million.[1]
The Khmer Rouge judicial process, for minor or political crimes, began with a warning from the Angkar, the government of Cambodia under the regime. People receiving more than two warnings were sent for "re-education", which meant near-certain death. People were often encouraged to confess to Angkar their "pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes" (which usually included some kind of free-market activity, or having had contact with a foreign source, such as a US missionary, or international relief or government agency, or contact with any foreigner or with the outside world at all), being told that Angkar would forgive them and "wipe the slate clean". This meant being taken away to a place such as Tuol Sleng or Choeung Ek for torture and/or execution.
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