Friday, January 9, 2009

Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh

Depressing. Upsetting. Disturbed. The tragedy that many suffered during the era of the S21 (1975-1979). It takes about 20 minutes or less from the Residence of the Brunei Embassy to get to the genocide museum, known to many now, was a former Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison and it was formerly a school. The entrance is only USD 2 per entry. The historical museum of genocide opened to the public in 1980. The Khmer Rouge (KR) regime used to prison to detain individuals accused of opposing. The word Tuol Sleng literally means a poisonous hill or a place on a mound to keep those who bear or supply guilt. The first sight of the museum, I told my friend it looks like a school and indeed it was a high school turned into prison cells.
Till today, the windows are enclosed by iron bars and covered with tangled barbed wires. This was to prevent possible escapes by prisoners in the days. The victims in the prison were taken from all parts of the country and from all walks of life. They were of different nationalities and included Vietnamese, Laotians, Thais, Indians, Pakistanis, British, Americans, Canadians, New Zealandees and Australians but the vast majority were Cambodians. The civilian prisoners composed of workers, farmers, engineers, technicians, intellectuals, professors, teachers, students, and even ministers and diplomats. The figures of estimated number of prisoners from 1975-1978 were about 10, 499. This does not include the 2000 of children killed by the KR regime at S-21. I bought the S21 DVD documentary to know more about the regime.
Chained Up
The gallows...they hang the prisoners upside down, torture them and dipped their heads in pots of dirty, smelly piss.

Individual Cells

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