After 50 years, another mass grave found with 800 victims of the Khmer Rouge
Residents on Koh Romduol found the remains while planting banana trees near an old cemetery. Authorities expect to unearth more bones buried in surrounding farms. The remains will be preserved as historical evidence until they are moved to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews) – The remains of nearly 800 people were discovered earlier this month on Koh Romduol, in the municipality of Ta Khmau, Kandal province.
The provincial Department of Culture and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum sent a team to recover the remains last Monday.
At least 1.7 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge regime, from 1975 to 1979, as a result of starvation, forced labour, disease, and executions. Half a century later, the bodies of victims of those brutal years continue to be found.
Some residents on Koh Romduol (an island also known as Koh Kor) uncovered the remains near an old cemetery, while planting banana trees. Authorities were subsequently alerted to the discovery.
“From May 4–6, our working team collected the remains of nearly 800 Khmer Rouge victims,” said Muong Sarim, director of the Culture Department. “Some of the victims’ clothes were also found and collected”.
The excavations also uncovered other graves on farms in the area. “[W]e expect to find more Khmer Rouge victims buried there,” the director added.
Sarim explained that the primary goal of the recovery mission is to collect and preserve historical evidence, including the remains and clothing of victims who died under the Khmer Rouge regime.
The remains collected are currently held in a local Buddhist pagoda, ahead of transfer to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh for preservation and cataloguing.
The museum offers a unique testimony to the Cambodian genocide. It was set up in the facility known as S-21, one of the many places of imprisonment and torture used by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979.
Some estimates put the number of victims at up to three million, an unprecedented purge by the Pol Pot regime, whose leaders were put on trial in 2006, after the establishment of a Joint Cambodian and International Tribunal, coordinated by the United Nations.
After the fall of the regime, multiple mass graves were unearthed, including 129 discovered in 1980 alone in the Choeung Ek area.
The remains of 8,985 people, arranged by sex and age, are on display at the Memorial Stupa, 15 kilometres from Phnom Penh.
Despite the passage of time, victims' remains continue to be discovered.
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18/03/2026 18:35
16/11/2018 10:03
