Andy's Cambodia: www.andybrouwer.co.uk: Forgotten Taing Krasaing

The forgotten Khmer Rouge victim's at Wat Taing Krasaing

Above and below this shelf was once stacked with the remains of Khmer Rouge victims

Like most genocide memorials around Cambodia, the one at Wat Taing Krasaing is largely forgotten. The town itself lies on the main Route 6 highway just 25 kms south of Kompong Thom and for most people, they pass through it in the blink of an eye. The entry gate to the town's main pagoda is on the highway. When I visited it last week, a large ceremony was taking place in the grounds of the wat, with lots of people milling around and eating food. One of the young monks pointed to a stupa in the corner of the grounds when I enquired where the Khmer Rouge memorial was located and I found the building in a dilapidated state, with graffiti-strewn walls and a collection of rubbish on its floor. On a shelf were the remnants of the memorial, with two boxes of victim's bones and skulls and more detritus. Our presence elicited some interest from the party-goers who wandered over to see what we were doing. They had no idea about the memorial even though they had lived in the area for many years. Then an older man recalled that a ceremony was held here each year on 20 May for a few years when the shelf was stacked high with skulls and the space beneath the shelf was packed full of arm and leg bones. He thought that over the intervening years, people had forgotten about the memorial and some bones had been taken away and animals had devoured much of the remainder. DC-Cam's notes on the memorial aren't overly helpful, indicating only that the victim's remains had been collected from security prisons in the district of Santuk and stored at the site. It had not itself been a prison or burial ground during the Khmer Rouge regime. The graffiti on the walls included some killing scenes but they were rather crudely drawn. As the new Cambodia focuses on the present and looks to the future, these reminders of the past will sadly remain ignored and abandoned.