Killing fields graveyard sold off

CAMBODIA has privatised a mass grave where thousands of Pol Pot’s political enemies were clubbed to death, sparking anger among relatives who say the Khmer Rouge’s 1.7 million victims are being traded for profit.

Phnom Penh’s mayor, Kep Chuktema, said yesterday a Japanese company, JC Royal, had signed a 30-year deal to manage the Cheoung Ek "killing fields" genocide memorial on the outskirts of the capital for an initial payment of 8,000 that will be repeated annually.

The firm will have to plant trees and flowers at the site, which is home to a memorial tower of 8,000 human skulls, as well as build other visitor facilities, he said. In return, it will be able to charge foreign tourists an admission fee of 1.60 - an increase from 26p. Khmers, who have always been allowed in for free, will have to pay 7p.

"We need to beautify the site to attract tourists," Mr Kep said. "This project will benefit our country’s tourism as some tourists do not just want to visit our historic temples. They also want to see with their own eyes the past violence of the killing fields."

The company "will beautify the site to an appropriate condition while preserving intact all evidence and traces of the [Khmer Rouge] genocidal acts", Mr Kep added. "Our biggest objective is to preserve the site to last for ever."

Phnom Penh’s deputy governor, Mam Bun Neang, said: "We want the site to have good order with the beauty that is suitable for foreign tourists to visit.

"This will also promote the reputation of our nation. It is a place lots of foreigners are interested in, so we have to prepare it. But we don’t allow the company to harm the things there."

Other survivors of the Maoist regime’s four-year reign of terror see the decision differently. "Morally speaking, this upsets me so much," said Neang Say, manager of the Cheoung Ek site since the 1980s, who lost almost 40 relatives under Pol Pot. "Justice has not yet been found for the victims, but at the same time their spirits have been traded off for money."

Youk Chhang, director of a centre documenting Khmer Rouge atrocities, also severely criticised the plan.

"It is commercialising the memories," he said.

"I don’t understand this at all. It’s hard to believe what the city hall has come to. It doesn’t make any sense."

The Khmer Rouge swept to power in the jungle-clad nation in April 1975, and immediately enacted a "Year Zero" agrarian revolution, emptying the cities, blowing up the central bank and destroying all money.

An estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died of torture, disease, overwork or starvation before invading Vietnamese troops toppled Pol Pot in 1979. None of the regime’s leaders has been brought to justice - several live freely in Cambodia. Pol Pot died in 1998.

Cambodia and the United Nations agreed to a UN-supported tribunal in June 2003, and officials hope trials will begin this year.

Cheoung Ek was the main execution site for Phnom Penh’s notorious S-21 torture and interrogation centre, which is likely to feature prominently in any future trial of Khmer Rouge members.