If you’re in Phnom Penh, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a
must see. It not only exposes the cruel past of Cambodia but is also an eye opener
and often emotional journey through human history where one ponders on how a
human being can commit such heinous acts upon another fellow human being.
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| One of the 5 buildings within the complex |
The museum was formerly a high school in Phnom Penh which was
used as the infamous Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime from
its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. In August 1975, four months after the Khmer Rouge won the
civil war, the five buildings of the Chao Ponhea Yat High School were converted
into a prison and interrogation center. The Khmer Rouge renamed the complex
"Security Prison 21" (S-21) and construction began to adapt the
prison to the inmates: the buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire,
the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture chambers, and all windows
were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent escapes.
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| almost all the buildings are lined with barbed wires like this to prevent anyone from escaping or committing suicide. |
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| this small cell will fit 3-5 prisoners at any one time |
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| large holding cells that would fit 50-70 people |
From 1975 to 1979,
an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng. The prison is
believed to hold 1000-1500 inmates at any one time. Upon arrival at the prison, prisoners were photographed and
required to give detailed autobiographies, beginning with their childhood and
ending with their arrest. After that, they were forced to strip to their
underwear, and their possessions were confiscated. The prisoners were then
taken to their cells. Those taken to the smaller cells were shackled to the
walls or the concrete floor, while those who were held in the large mass cells
were collectively shackled to long pieces of iron bar. The shackles were fixed
to alternating bars, with prisoners sleeping on the floor with their heads in
opposite directions. They were forbidden to talk to each other; almost every
action had to be approved by one of the prison's guards. Those who
disobeyed will be inflicted with severe beatings.
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| the tight regulation and severe punishments laid out for all inmates |
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| prisoners were hanged inverted on this structure. Below the big bowls would contain human feces and urine where prisoners were dipped into while being tortured. |
They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming
family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and
killed. In the early months of S-21's existence, most of the victims were from
the previous Lon Nol regime and included soldiers, government officials, as
well as academics, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, monks,
engineers, etc. Later, the party leadership's paranoia turned on its own ranks
and purges throughout the country saw thousands of party activists and their
families being brought to Tuol Sleng and murdered. Although the official reason
for their arrest was "espionage," these men may have been viewed by
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot as potential leaders of a coup against him.
Prisoners' families were often brought all together to be interrogated and
later murdered at the Choeung Ek extermination center.
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| When the prison was uncovered, only 7 prisoners were left alive. This man is the last living survival when I visited the museum. |
The prison was
uncovered by the invading Vietnamese army in 1979. The following year, the
government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea reopened the prison as a
historical museum memorializing the actions of the Khmer Rouge regime. The
museum is now open to the public.
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| Some of the graves found on the site- These were done up after the prison was uncovered |
