Choeung Ek

Choeung Ek (Khmer: ជើងឯក, Cheung Êk [cəːŋ ʔaek]) is the site of a former orchard and mass grave of victims of the Khmer Rouge – killed between 1975 and 1979 – in Dangkao Section, Phnom Penh, Cambodia,[1] about 17 kilometres (11 mi) south of the Phnom Penh city centre. It is the best-known of the approximately 300 sites known as killing fields, where the Khmer Rouge regime executed over one million[2] people between 1975 and 1979.

Choeung Ek
ជើងឯក
Choeung Ek Monument in 2012
11°29′4″N 104°54′7″E
LocationPhnom Penh, Cambodia
TypeBuddhist stupa
Height62 m (203 ft)
Beginning date1988
Stupa at Choeung Ek
Mass graves at Choeung Ek

Description

Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of the dead were former political prisoners who were kept by the Khmer Rouge in their Tuol Sleng detention center and in other Cambodian detention centers.

Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa. The stupa has acrylic glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered or smashed in.

Tourists are encouraged by the Cambodian government to visit Choeung Ek. Apart from the stupa, there are pits from which the bodies were exhumed. Human bones still litter the site.

On May 3, 2005, the Municipality of Phnom Penh announced that they had entered into a 30-year agreement with JC Royal Co. to develop the memorial at Choeung Ek.[3] As part of the agreement, they are not to disturb the remains still present in the field.

  • The film The Killing Fields is a dramatised portrayal of events like those that took place at Choeung Ek.

References
  1. "Property Tax Map". City of Phnom Penh. Retrieved 2020-05-06. - Map of Dangkor Section - Compare map to Google Maps view of Dangkor District.
  2. Sharp, Bruce (April 1, 2005). "Counting Hell: The Death Toll of the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia". Retrieved July 5, 2006.
  3. Doyle, Kevin (2005-04-11). "The Revenue Fields". Time. Archived from the original on July 12, 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
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