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Mass graves
Currently, 19,403 mass burial pits have been identified. Many of
these sites contain or once contained the remains of thousands of
victims, and they are located throughout 170 Cambodian districts in
almost all of Cambodia's provinces.
Choeung Ek was in
essence the burial ground for those arrested and tortured at the
Tuol Sleng prison in downtown Phnom Penh. Some were killed and
buried at the prison itself, but most victims were shipped the
fifteen kilometers out of the capital. They were moved at night by
truck, many still blindfolded, some were even made to dig their own
graves before they were bludgeoned to death by pick-axe, hoe, iron
bar, wooden club or whatever other instruments of death. The Khmer
Rouge refused to waste precious ammunition on their victims, many of
whom were their own staff or family members.
Mass exhumations
took place at Choeung Ek in 1980, with 89 mass graves disinterred
out of the estimated 129 graves in the vicinity. A total of 8,985
individual skeletons were reportedly removed. The exhumed skulls
laid out in neat rows on the ground were some of the most graphic
images of our time. It's evident from the cracks and holes in the
skulls that many victims died from severe blows to the head. From
the opened pits, the bones and skulls were removed and the number of
dead was estimated.
89 mass graves
disinterred out of the estimated 129 graves at Choeung Ek Killing Field
in 1980
Some of the remains
were found still bound and blindfolded. A forensic specialist team has
treated the skeletal remains with chemical memorial preservative and
placed in the long, open-walled wooden pavilion.
The exhumed skulls laid out in neat rows on the ground |
The
cracks and holes in the skulls that many victims died from
severe blows to the head |
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The remains
were found still bound and blindfolded |
After that a large
scale of construction worked by early 1988, when the Government
ordered ministerial and municipal authorities to construct a
memorial stupa. Then, in 1989, 8,985 skeletal remains housed in the
wooden memorial were relocated to a sealed glass display of the
large new concrete Memorial Stupa. In addition to the 8,985
victims already exhumed, another 40 pits have been left undisturbed
and the final total is believed to be well in excess of 13,000
killed. Incredibly, Choeung Ek is just one of 380 mass grave sites
dotted throughout Cambodia (DC-CAM, 2005) and is by no means, the
largest.
In addition to the
closed areas where mass graves have been unearthed, and the pitted
areas where additional remains have been dug up, rain washed
uncovered cloth, bone fragments and teeth have been exposed from the
ground in many areas.
Rain-washed uncovered cloth, bone fragments
and teeth
exposed from the ground underfoot
The estimated 129 mass graves of Choeung Ek Killing Fields were categorized as:
1. Mass grave of more than 100 victims, children and women, whose
majority were naked.
2. Mass grave with 166 headless victims
3. Mass grave of 450 victims were in the largest mass grave of the
site
4. General mass graves
5. Non-exhumed masse graves
Mass grave where 166 headless victims were buried |
Mass grave of more than 100
victims, children and women, whose majority were naked.
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Series of
graves about 3 meters deep become shallow about two or three
feet deep because of improperly maintenance |
Mass grave of 450 victims which is the most largest mass grave of the Killing
Field
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