Images for cambodia history killing fields

1152 × 864 - cambodianbc.org

Why the world should not forget Khmer Rouge and the killing fields of Cambodia

By Adam Taylor August 7, 2014  

Picture dated April 1976 shows Khmer Rouge fighters standing guard as he watches forced labourers digging a water canal near Battambang. (CLAUDE JUVENAL/AFP/Getty Images)

"Killing Fields" Lure Tourists in Cambodia

The sight of 8,000 human skulls in a glass shrine stuns visitors into silence.

Outside, where cattle usually graze, human bones sometimes come unearthed after heavy rains.

 Printer Friendly

Email to a Friend

What's This?

SHARE

DiggStumbleUponReddit

RELATED

• Country Profile: Cambodia
• Angkor Wat, Cambodia fromNational Geographic Travelermagazine
• See the treasures of Thailand and Cambodia on a National Geographic Expedition

In Cambodia, nine miles (14.5 kilometers) 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 during the late 1970s.

Pol Pot Cambodia, 175-1979 2,000,000 Deaths

An attempt by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot to form a Communist peasant farming society resulted in the deaths of 25 percent of the country's population from starvation, overwork and executions.

Pol Pot was born in 1925 (as Saloth Sar) into a farming family in central Cambodia, which was then part of French Indochina. In 1949, at age 20, he traveled to Paris on a scholarship to study radio electronics but became absorbed in Marxism and neglected his studies. He lost his scholarship and returned to Cambodia in 1953 and joined the underground Communist movement. The following year, Cambodia achieved full independence from France and was then ruled by a royal monarchy.

Map & Photos Cambodia and surrounding area. Pol Pot addresses a closed meeting in Phnom Penh after the 1975 Khmer Rouge victory. Young Khmer Rouge soldiers in 1975. Tuol Sleng Prison, the nerve center of the Khmer Rouge secret police. Today it's the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide. The Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. This mass grave, discovered in 1980, was one of the first proofs to the outside world of what had occurred during Pol Pot's regime.

By 1962, Pol Pot had become leader of the Cambodian Communist Party and was forced to flee into the jungle to escape the wrath of Prince Norodom

Shopping - Koh Kong, Cambodia

Most of the products are imported from Thailand, except vegetables, fruits and some local foods.

Where to Stay - Koh Kong, Cambodia

Where to Stay

Hotels:
There are only five hotels here and the rest are