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TUOL
SLENG MUSEUM
In 1975,Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's security
force and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21) It
soon became the largest such centre of detention and torture in the
country. Over 17,000 people held at S-21 were taken to the extermination
camp at Choeung Ek to be executed; detainees who die during torture were
buried in mass graves in the prison grounds.
S-21 has been turned into the Tuol
Sleng Museum, which serves as a testament to the crimes of the Khmer
Rough. The museum's entrance is on the western side of 113 St just north
of 350 St, and it is open daily from 7 to 11.30 am and from 2 to 5.30 pm;
entry is US$2.
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Like
the Nazis, the Khmer Rough was meticulous in keeping records of their
barbarism. Each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed,
sometimes before and after being tortured. The museum displays include
room after room in which such photographs of men, women and children cover
the walls from floor to ceiling; virtually all the people pictured were
later killed.
You can tell in what year a picture was
taken by the style of number board that appears on the prisoner's chest.
Several foreigners from Australia, France and the USA were held here
before being murdered. Their documents are on display.
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As
the Khmer 'revolution' reached ever-greater heights of insanity, it began
devouring its own children. Generations of tortures and executioners and
were in turn killed by those who took their places. During the first part
of 1977, S-21 claimed an average of 100 victims a day. When Phnom Penh was
liberated by the Vietnamese army in early 1979, they found only seven
prisoners alive at S-21. Fourteen others had been tortured to death as
Vietnamese forces were closing in on the city. Photographs of their
decomposing corpses were found. Their graves are nearby in the courtyard.
Altogether,
a visit to Tuol Sleng is a profoundly depressing experience. There is
something about the sheer ordinariness of the place that make it even more
horrific; the suburban setting, the plain school buildings, the grassy
playing area where several children kick around a ball, rusted beds,
instruments of torture and wall after wall of harrowing black-and-white
portraits conjure up images of humanity at its worst. Tuol Sleng is not
for the squeamish.
KILLING FIELDS OF CHEUNG EK
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Between 1975 and 1978, about 17,000 men,
women, children and infants (including nine westerners), detained and
tortured at S-21 prison (now Tuol Sleng Museum), were transported to the
extermination to death to avoid wasting precious bullets.
The remains of 8985 people, many of whom were bound and blindfolded, were
exhumed in 1980 from mass graves in this one-time long an orchard; 43 of
the 129 communal graves here have been left untouched.
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Fragment of Human
bone and bits of cloth are scattered around the disinterred pits. Over
8000 skulls, arranged by sex, are visible behind the clear glass panels of
the Memoral Stupa, which was erected in 1988.
The
Killing Fields of Choeung Ek are 15 km from Central Phnom Penh. To get
there, take Monireth Blvd south-westward out of the city from the Dang Kor
Market bus depot. The site is 8.5 km from the bridge near 271 St. A
memorial ceremony is held annually at Choeung Ek on 9 May.
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