Kang Meas District

Kang Meas ស្រុកគងមាស
District (srok)
Victims of the Khmer Rouge preserved in a memorial stupa
Kang Meas Location in Cambodia
Coordinates: 11°56′35″N 105°16′14″E / 11.94306°N 105.27056°E / 11.94306; 105.27056
Country	Cambodia
Province	Kampong Cham
Communes	11
Villages	93
Population (1998)
• Total	91,212
Time zone	+7
Geocode	0307

Kang Meas District (Khmer: ស្រុកគងមាស; "Ring of Gold") is a district (srok) located in Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia. The district capital is Peam Chi Kang town located some 13 kilometres south of the town of Prey Toteung on National Highway 7 and is 110 kilometres by road from Phnom Penh. National road 70 provides access to the district from the highway and meets provincial road 223 at the district capital. This long relatively narrow district parallels the northern bank of the Mekong for about 40 kilometres between Kampong Cham (city) and Mukh Kampul District in Kandal Province. As the district is low-lying, much of the land area of the district is inundated when the Mekong rises during the wet season.

Between 1974 and 1978, two pagodas (wat in Khmer) in Kang Meas district were used as prisons and killing fields by the Khmer Rouge. According to a mapping team who surveyed the region in 1995 and 1996 Wat O Trau Kuon and Wat Nikroath in Peam Chi Kang commune were used as a district prison and regional prison respectively. O Trau Kuon was the main Democratic Kampuchea district prison from 1974 until 1978. Initial victims at this site were soldiers from the army of Lon Nol and then New People who were brought to Kang Meas District from Phnom Penh. Victims were executed at the mass graves close to the Wat. District authorities reported 467 mass graves at this site and estimated that 32,690 victims were executed there. The graves were excavated in 1982 and the remains placed in a memorial stupa near the pagoda.

Wat Nikroath was used as a prison from 1975 when New People were invited to the pagoda to receive food. They were then imprisoned and later executed. District officials recorded 186 mass graves at the site containing an estimated 11,160 victims. Monks from the pagoda reported that they have found names written in blood on the walls when they returned after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. These have now been covered with fresh paint.