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Killing Tree
a term
‘Killing Tree’ was invented by Suon Sovann, an advisor to the
Choeung Ek Genocidal Center in 2002. In fact, this kind of tree is
called" Chan Kiri" or “Ampil Tek Baraing“by local people. It was
used by the executioners as a tool to kill babies and children of
the prisoners taken from S-21. The tree itself stands next to the
mass grave site where more than 100 victims are buried most of which
were children and women, whose majority were naked. At that time of
course the tree was small and short but now the killing tree is
large and tall and stands prominently amongst the graves. There was
little left as evidence of such vile and merciless acts committed by
the killers. However, it is known that babies and small children
were held by their feet and their heads and then smashed against the
tree before being flung into an open pit. In some cases,
the babies were killed by being tossed in the air toward the pit and
lanced on the ends of rifles on the way down.
It causes one to
feel goose bumps to hear about this heinous crime. How could any man
do that?
Such vile acts are incomprehensible, particularly when one imagines
the killers as teenagers, who killed their own family and friends.
The blood thirsty regime of Pol Pot had
brainwashed the
young Khmer people into believing their actions would free Cambodia
from colonial imperialism.
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Killing Tree stands next to the grave of naked women and
children
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Babies were held by their feet and their heads smashed
against the trunk of tree
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A pale mark of the dark red stain running down the trunk of
the tree as children killed |
the babies were killed by being tossed in the air toward the
pit and lanced on the ends of rifles on the way through |
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