My round 5 exploration is focusing on Khmer Rouge. This exploration has continued for 4 rounds and this is the last round. Round 1 which focused on the rise of Khmer Rouge, round 2 focused on during Khmer Rouge, round 3 focused on the fall of Khmer Rouge and last but not least round 4 focused on the downfall and after Khmer Rouge. In this exploration, we relook at the timeline of Khmer Rouge and discuss how they fall; furthermore, what happens after they fail. In every course that we took, we get to visit places that are relevant to our topic; therefore, we took a visit to the Choeung Ek Killing Field, S-21, and ECCC.
Our first trip is to the killing field, the killing field was a place that Khmer Rouge soldiers used to execute people. Khmer Rouge had turned the peaceful Choeung Ek village into a miserable place where they executed thousands of people and buried them in mass graves. Nowadays, this place is under conserved and serve as a museum for new generations to visit this historical tragedy place. As this place has been developed, there are audio tours available more than 10 languages that help even foreigners to understand this brutal regime. We took an audio tour around the killing field trying to get the feeling of how would people at that time feel when they were sent there. It was creepy and at the same time emotional to see people having abnormal fate and experienced this terrible genocide.
But, before all of these people were executed, they need to experience another torturous sanction place called S-21. S-21 was previously known as a normal high school and was turned into a prison during the period of Khmer Rouge regime. This prison was led by Kang Kek Iew was also known as Duch. He was sent to trial at Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia, ECCC, he was charged with crimes against humanity, murder, and torture as his role during Khmer Rouge’s rule. He was then sent to life imprisonment. Overall, we visited the S-21 and it’s even more creepy than the killing field. They wouldn’t allow people to die easily but torture them until the end of their breath. There were only seven known survivors. This place also offers audio tours in different languages and get people to reflect on what it looks like to be tortured.
Our last visit is to the ECCC, Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia. The ECCC’s plan is to come to an end of the remaining people including Nuon Chea and Kheiu Samphan after doing this trial for over than a decade. On that day, we have presented the closing statements of the trial.
It was astonishing to be a part of this exploration since history also a part of favorites thing to learn; furthermore, to deeply understand this immense part of the history of Cambodia, The Khmer Rouge Regime.