Everything about The Killing Fields totally explained
The Killing Fields were a number of sites in
Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Communist
Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979. At least 200,000 people were executed by the Khmer Rouge (while estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.4 to 2.2 million out of a population of around 7 million). In 1979
Communist Vietnam invaded the country, which at that time was officially called
Democratic Kampuchea, and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime.
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.
The executed were buried in
mass graves. In order to save ammunition, the executions were often carried out using hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened
bamboo sticks. Some victims were required to dig their own graves; their weakness often meant that they were unable to dig very deep. The soldiers who carried out the executions were mostly young men or women from peasant families.
The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic
Vietnamese, ethnic
Thai, ethnic
Chinese, ethnic
Chams (
Muslim Cambodians),
Cambodian
Christians, and the
Buddhist monkhood were the demographic targets of persecution.
The best known monument of the Killing Fields is
Choeung Ek. Today, it's the site of a
Buddhist memorial to the terror, and Tuol Sleng has a museum commemorating the genocide. A 1984 motion picture,
The Killing Fields, tells the story of Cambodian journalist
Dith Pran, played by Cambodian actor
Haing S. Ngor, and his journey to escape the death camps.
The real-life
Dith Pran coined the term 'Killing Fields' during his escape from the regime.
(External Link
) He died Sunday, March 30th, 2008 in a New Jersey hospital after a three month battle with pancreatic cancer.
(External Link)Further Information
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