킬링필드는 1975년부터 1979년까지 크레르루즈 공산 정권에 의해 살해당한 수백만의 시신이 묻힌 캄보디아의 다수 지역을 말한다.
DC-Cam Mapping Program과 예일대학교가 20,000개의 시신 매장 지역 분석한 결과에 따르면 최소 1,386,734명의 희생자가 처형되었다고 한다. 질병이나 기아로 사망한 사람들의 수까지 포함하면 800만 명의 전체 인구 중 170~250만이 사망한 것으로 추정된다. 1979년, 베트남의 캄푸치아(Kampuchea) 침공으로 크메르루즈 정권이 무너짐으로써 학살이 중단된 것으로 보인다.
크레르루즈 정권은 전문가, 지식인 뿐 아니라 전 정권이나 외국 정부와의 관련성을 의심받는 거의 모든 사람을 처형하였다. 베트남인, 태국인, 중국인, 짬족, 캄보디아 기독교인, 불교 승려 등이 박해의 대상이었다. 폴포트는 대량 학살의 Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Thai, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Cham, Cambodian Christians, and the Buddhist monkhood were the demographic targets of persecution. As a result, Pol Pot has been described as "a genocidal tyrant."[4] Martin Shaw described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the Cold War era."[clarification needed][5]
Ben Kiernan estimates that about 1.7 million people were killed.[6] Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After 5 years of researching some 20,000 grave sites, he concludes that, "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution."[7] A UN investigation reported 2–3 million dead, while UNICEF estimated 3 million had been killed.[8] Demographic analysis by Patrick Heuveline suggests that between 1.17 and 3.42 million Cambodians were killed,[9] while Marek Sliwinski suggests that 1.8 million is a conservative figure.[10] Even the Khmer Rouge acknowledged that 2 million had been killed—though they attributed those deaths to a subsequent Vietnamese invasion.[11] By late 1979, UN and Red Cross officials were warning that another 2.25 million Cambodians faced death by starvation due to "the near destruction of Cambodian society under the regime of ousted Prime Minister Pol Pot",[12][13] who were saved by international aid after the Vietnamese invasion.
Contents
1 Process
2 Prosecution for crimes against humanity
3 Legacy
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Process
Rooms of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum contain thousands of photos taken by the Khmer Rouge of their victims. The judicial process of the Khmer Rouge regime, for minor or political crimes, began with a warning from the Angkar, the government of Cambodia under the regime. People receiving more than two warnings were sent for "re-education", which meant near-certain death. People were often encouraged to confess to Angkar their "pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes" (which usually included some kind of free-market activity; having had contact with a foreign source, such as a U.S. missionary, international relief or government agency; or contact with any foreigner or with the outside world at all), being told that Angkar would forgive them and "wipe the slate clean." They were then taken away to a place such as Tuol Sleng or Choeung Ek for torture and/or execution.[citation needed]
The executed were buried in mass graves. In order to save ammunition, the executions were often carried out using poison, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks. In some cases the children and infants of adult victims were killed by having their heads bashed against the trunks of Chankiri trees, and then were thrown into the pits alongside their parents. The rationale was "to stop them growing up and taking revenge for their parents' deaths."[14]
Some victims were required to dig their own graves; their weakness often meant that they were unable to dig very deep. The soldiers who carried out the executions were mostly young men or women from peasant families.
Prosecution for crimes against humanity In 1997 the Cambodian government asked for the UN's assistance in setting up a genocide tribunal. It took nine years to agree to the shape and structure of the court – a hybrid of Cambodian and international laws – before the judges were sworn in, in 2006.[15][16][17] The investigating judges were presented with the names of five possible suspects by the prosecution on July 18, 2007.[15] On September 19, 2007 Nuon Chea, second in command of the Khmer Rouge and its most senior surviving member, was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. He faced Cambodian and foreign judges at the special genocide tribunal and was convicted on 7 August 2014 and received a life sentence.[18] On July 26, 2010 Kang Kek Iew (aka Comrade Duch), director of the S-21 prison camp, was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment. His sentence was reduced to 19 years, as he had already spent 11 years in prison.[19] On February 2, 2012, his sentence was extended to life imprisonment by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
Legacy The best known monument of the Killing Fields is at the village of Choeung Ek. Today, it is the site of a Buddhist memorial to the victims, and Tuol Sleng has a museum commemorating the genocide. The memorial park at Choeung Ek has been built around the mass graves of many thousands of victims, most of whom were executed after interrogation at the S-21 Prison in Phnom Penh. The majority of those buried at Choeung Ek were Khmer Rouge killed during the purges within the regime. Many dozens of mass graves are visible above ground, many which have not been excavated yet. Commonly, bones and clothing surface after heavy rainfalls due to the large number of bodies still buried in shallow mass graves. It is not uncommon to run across the bones or teeth of the victims scattered on the surface as one tours the memorial park. If these are found, visitors are asked to notify a memorial park officer or guide.
A survivor of the genocide, Dara Duong, founded The Killing Fields Museum in Seattle, Washington, US.
