Killing Fields at Choeung Ek

Most travellers combine a visit to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek with a vist to the former Khmer Rouge prison at Tuol Sleng in downtown Phnom Penh.

Some may find the Tuol Sleng account a powerful enough encounter with the horrors of the Khmer Rouge.

The award winning 1984 David Puttnam film, The Killing Fields, provided a ready made name for the human dumping grounds around Cambodia that are now known as Khmer Rouge Killing Fields.

The most famous of these are the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, around 15 kms from Phnom Penh.

Photo: Mark BowyerKilling Fields memorial at Choeung Ek

It makes good sense to visit Tuol Sleng before heading to the Killing Fields as Tuol Sleng is both more profound and more informative than Choeung Ek. And be warned, like the Tuol Sleng Museum, a visit to Choeung Ek is distressing.

The Khmer Rouge slaughtered around 17,000 of their countrymen and women here between 1975 and 1979. A number of foreigners were also imprisoned at S21 and later murdered here.


The site now consists of shallow graves and a memorial to the victims that includes hundreds of skulls, many smashed by clubs in order to save bullets. Fragments of bone and clothing are still visible in the area.

A good audio tour has been added in recent years and is included in the ticket price.

The Khmer Rouge tyranny was characterised by ideological lunacy and extreme paranoia.  Cambodia’s educated class - doctors, professors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, linguists and others - were targeted with precision and few educated Cambodians survived the Khmer Rouge reign - a loss from which the country still suffers.

Photo: Mark BowyerKilling Fields mass grave at Choeung Ek

As time passed, the regime became increasingly paranoid and began to turn on its own. Many of the victims of S-21 and Choeung Ek were themselves former Khmer Rouge.

The Killing Fields at Choeung Ek are now privately managed and while it is a tasteful memorial, there is something disconcerting about a commercial operation commemorating mass murder.


Travel tips:
Choeung Ek is 15kms and 30 - 40 minutes from Phnom Penh by car or tuk tuk. What was once a journey into rural Cambodia is now a dusty experience of the city's growing urban sprawl and traffic problems. You may be better off renting a car to avoid the dust.