"Babies' Heads Were Smashed"

Warning:  This post covering Cambodia's history is graphic.

8,985 skulls excavated from 129 mass graves at Choeung Ek. The rest were left in peace.
Over 3 million people were killed during the genocide - about a quarter of Cambodia's population.

The truck came to an abrupt stop. He was dragged from the vehicle, still blindfolded with his frail arms bound behind his bony back. He was naked, much like the other men in the truck with him.

As they were led to the holding area, loud speakers blared music in an attempt to disguise the screams of people being killed and tossed into mass graves a mere 100 meters away. The air smelt of death - something that was imminent to each of them since they had been forced to sign false confessions to being traitors after being starved and tortured daily for weeks or even months. They had essentially signed a death warrant.

Tree that the loud speakers were hung from

"Better to kill an innocent by mistake rather than spare an enemy by mistake." 

- Pol Pot slogan

If you or I had lived in Cambodia between 1975-1979, we would have met the same brutal fate. Pol Pot's regime targeted Cambodians who were educated, wore glasses, spoke a second language, or a series of other "offenses." He aimed to revert the country to its purest form that was free of western influence by using an extreme version of communism as his template. Sadly, he was able to make his way into power in part because of the US bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam war.

As we walked around the killing fields our hearts were heavy. We saw teeth, bones and pieces of tattered clothing protruding from the unexcavated mass graves. It was hard to imagine the brutality that took place and nothing could prepare us for what we learned next.

When the site was excavated in 1980, researchers found a tree covered with hair, brain matter and blood stains. It was Khmer Rouge policy to arrest entire families - including babies and children - to avoid the children from taking revenge later in life. "There is no gain to keep them, and they might take revenge on you," a former guard named Duch shamefully explained years later.

"Clearing grasses, it shall dig its entire root off."
- Pol Pot slogan used to explain why children were killed

To quickly kill the babies, the guards had held the babies at their ankles and swung their heads into the tree until they stopped crying and became limp. More than 100 women, the majority of whom were naked, were found in the mass grave next to this tree. Their babies' skulls laid beside them.

The pain Cambodians suffered during these years still affects them today. Much of the surviving population is uneducated and understandably afraid to speak of the past or against its current corrupt government. Everyone we spoke to had been affected by the genocide. After seeing the terrors that were unleashed on these innocent people we too will never be the same.

Each prisoner in Tuol Sleng was photographed upon arrival