Tuol Sleng and The Killing Fields

Our next stop was Phnom Penh (capital of Cambodia). With our waning interest in gold-plated monuments, structures, statues, and/or objects we stuck to the more serious side of PP and took a day tour to Tuol Sleng Museum and The Killing Fields. Not being much of a history buff I won't go into much detail but essentially the country was taken over by the Khmer Rouge.The regime's primary aim was to create a "peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative". In order to restructure society they went on a rampage and began killing off the educated. This apparently was extremely loosely defined and even wearing glasses could constitute as educated. (I guess there's something in glasses making you look smarter) . On April 17 1975 the KR began evacuating Phnom Penh (and all urban centers throughout the country) and everyone was forced to march to the countryside and work in labor camps.

During this time they set up prisons - the most notorious of which was Tuol Sleng or "S-21". Once a high school, the four three-storey buildings on the grounds imprisoned 17000 people during the KR's three-year reign.

All the prisoners (men, women and children who were accused of, among other ludicrous accusations, of being CIA-KGB spies) were systematically photographed before their imprisonment and their photos now fill the hallways of S21.



All except 7 prisoners were executed.

The 14 graves of the last people believed to be killed at S21 by the Khmer Rouge before the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh in 1979.

Some of the prisoners at S-21 died from torture while others died from extremely harsh conditions. However many were shipped off to Choeung Ek - now known as The Killing Fields. The fields are littered with mass graves (most of which have been left unexcavated) and during the rainy season clothing, bones, and bone fragments are still unearthed by the rain.

Reports suggest that over 100 people were killed there everyday. In an attempt to save bullets, people were bludgeoned to death in the mass graves then covered with chemicals (to kill remaining survivors and hide the smell of decomposition from surrounding neighbours) and then buried.

Young children were swung by the ankles and hit against a designated tree (that still stands on the grounds today). All the while, loud music was played from large speakers to drown out the screams of the prisoners.


A monument/tower filled with 8000 skulls, bones and clothes found from the mass graves on site was erected to honor the dead.

It's estimated that over 2,000,000 people died during the three years of Khmer Rouge reign. Today most of the top leaders of the Khmer Rouge are on trial for crimes against humanity and committing war crimes. Almost thirty years later and only one leader has been convicted - sentenced to 35 years in prison (which he is appealing). Other leaders have yet to be put on trial and they all deny knowledge of the existence of reeducation camps, prisons and/or of the country wide genocide.