Indochina 2009
Photos by Adam Jones
These photos were taken during two months in Indochina
(Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) from May to July 2009.
Photo Gallery 6: Cheung Ek "Killing Fields" Memorial, Phnom Penh
Most of those condemned at S-21 were driven some kilometres away to Cheung Ek, on the
outskirts of Phnom Penh, to be executed -- normally with spades or clubs, to save bullets.
I.
A photo at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum shows the exhumations at Cheung Ek
following the Khmer Rouge collapse in 1979.
II.
A stupa on the Cheung Ek site contains the piled skulls of some 8,000 victims.
III.
Photo by Griselda Ramírez
IV.
Jawbones collected from the Cheung Ek graves were arranged, strangely enough,
on the floor of the little museum on site; it would have been easy to step on them unawares.
V.
Photo by Griselda Ramírez
VI.
Photo by Griselda Ramírez
Each of the depressions is an excavated mass gravesite.
VII.
Note the pile of human femurs and tibia at the bottom right of the photo.
VIII.
IX.
Photo by Griselda Ramírez
The smiles probably seem out of place after what you've just seen, but there's a
reason for them nonetheless. I'm standing with my friend Helen Jarvis, who at the time of my visit was
Chief of Public Affairs for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia -- the special "mixed tribunal"
(both Cambodian and foreign judges) established to try five of the senior Khmer Rouge leaders still living.
Helen has now been appointed head of the Victims' Unit; an Australian by origin, she speaks fluent Khmer
and has become a Cambodian citizen, holding goverment-minister status.
IX.
Back in Phnom Penh, at a Mexican cantina (!) along the banks of the Tonle Sap river,
I was introduced to none other than Al Rockoff on one of his frequent visits to Cambodia.
Al was one of the most famous photographers of the Vietnam War (see his Wikipedia page), and was in
Phnom Penh on the day it fell to the Khmer Rouge, April 17, 1975. John Malkovich played him
in The Killing Fields, and although Al was scathing about the liberties the filmmakers took,
he says that the unforgettable scene where he and Sydney Schanberg are confined in an armoured personnel
carrier, while Cambodian translator Dith Pran negotiates desperately for their lives, was very close
to reality. Even worse, he says, was having an adolescent Khmer Rouge soldier hold a gun to his head,
and seeing the soldier's comrades move aside to avoid being splattered by his brains. He's a guy who's
seen a lot and, as you might gather from his expression, isn't altogether happy about it. I'm told he's
a sweetheart underneath, though!
All photos copyright 2009 by Adam Jones, unless otherwise indicated. These images may be freely used for educational and other non-commercial purposes, if the author is credited and notified. For commercial use, please contact the author. All photos are available in high-resolution versions suitable for print publication.
adamj_jones@hotmail.com