Khmer Rouge killing field unearthed

Published on 07/08/2012 00:00

Villagers in north-western Cambodia have unearthed what could be a mass grave from the Khmer Rouge era, with about 20 skulls and some leg bones bound with rope, officials said yesterday.

The village is near a former Khmer Rouge prison and the site is believed to be one of the “killing fields” from the regime’s rule in the 1970s.

The Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which has collected evidence about atrocities, had identified the area in 1998 as having several mass graves based on interviews with villagers but it was never excavated, said Youk Chhang, director of the center. “We estimate that 35,000 or more people died at this site,” he said.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians – about a fifth of the population – died of torture, starvation, medical neglect, hard labour and execution during 1975-79.