The Killing Fields
CAMBODIA | Wednesday, 17 August 2011 | Views [849]
There are times when I feel am an
opportunist coz am trying to capture some horrid truths and gain
sympathy for my work and in the process become popular...taking
photographs around the killing fields was one such time. I feel guilty
putting up these images in my album coz am trying to cover 2 million
deaths in 200 shots of my camera, I would get some good comments and be
appreciated, but the truth is I feel I am en cashing upon those lost
souls. The only reason I made this album is for the people who do not
know about the Genocide in Cambodia which swept away generations of
people in just 5 years of regime of the Khmer Rouge. This is a tribute
to those who were killed mercilessly….
The killing fields are a
number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed
and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during the rule of the country
from 1975 to 1979. At least 200,000 people were executed by the Khmer
Rouge and the approximate estimation of the number of deaths resulting
from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from
1.4 to 2.2 million out of a total population of 7 million. It took 5
years to research 20,000 grave sites which contained the remains of
1,112,829 victims of execution. The Khmer regime headed by Pol Pot
targeted anyone and everyone suspected to be in connection with the
former government or with foreign government, Professionals,
Intellectuals, Ethnic Vietnamese, Ethnic Thai, Ethnic Chinese, Ethnic
Chams (Cambodian Muslims), Christians and even Buddhist Monks were not
spared. To save ammunition the executions were carried out using
hammers, axe handles, spades and sharpened bamboo sticks; some victims
were required to dig their own graves. It is often described as “One of
the worst human tragedies of the last century”.
“No religious
rituals, No religious symbols; No education, No training; No currency,
No bartering; No communication, No public transportation; No human
rights, No social gathering; No marriage, No divorce; No flirting, No
masturbation; No shoes, No sandals; No soaps, No detergents; No mercy,
No help; No radio, No TV …” these were a few lines of the poem written
during the Khmer Rouge regime, A third of the population didn’t survive.
In 1979, Vietnam backed by Soviet Union attacked and ended the Khmer
Rouge regime.
Tags: cambodia, genocide, khmer rouge, killing fields, phnom penh
