Cambodia's 'Killing Fields' Sprout New Purpose

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Cambodia's "killing fields" are the site of mass graves where the Khmer Rouge regime executed and buried people suspected of having ties with the former government in the 1970s. Now, the fields are used for rice production to help feed Cambodia's poor.

Memorial
The Khmer Rouge, which held power in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, executed thousands of people it said supported the country's former government or other foreign governments. Here, the memorial at Choeung Ek marks one of the country's mass grave sites.
Photo Credit: NewsHour producer Nikki See

Human Skulls
Tourists visit the memorial at Choeung Ek, marked with a Buddhist stupa that displays about 5,000 human skulls. Bone fragments still litter the site.
Photo Credit: TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images

'Anger Day' Performance
Cambodian students perform in the rain during "Anger Day" on May 20, 2006. The annual ceremony honors those executed during the Khmer Rouge regime.
Photo Credit: TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images

Photos of Victims
The Khmer Rouge photographed their victims before killing them, and now those photographs are on display at the Toul Sleng Prison Museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
Photo Credit: NewsHour producer Nikki See

Lighting Incense
Visitors light incense at the victims' memorial. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, one in three Cambodians lives below the poverty line and 90 percent of the poorest live in rural areas.
Photo Credit: TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images

Plowing Fields
A farmer plows the former "killing fields," which are now used to grow rice. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, some parts of Cambodia have been affected more than others by the general rise in food prices and by droughts.
Photo Credit: Correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro

Food Program
Although Cambodia currently grows a surplus of rice, a lack of mills to process the rice, not enough storage sites and poor roads have remained problems. In order to help with the country's nutrition deficiencies, the U.N. World Food Program administers free school breakfast programs, like the one pictured here.
Photo Credit: Correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro