Cambodia's dark and tragic past

As a visitor to this fascinating country you have a responsibility to investigate Cambodia's past as well as admire its stunning palaces and temples. It is important to try to understand what the people suffered so that their tragedy is neither forgotten nor repeated.

Tuol Sleng used to be a high school before it was turned into the detention and interrogation centre known as the feared S-21 prison. Of the 20,000 prisoners imprisoned there during the time of the Khmer Rouge only 7 survived. The numbers involved in the mass extermination of the Cambodian people during the reign of terror under Pol Pot are so horrific as to be barely believable: of the population of 6 million people 2 million died, a mind blowing one third of the entire population. I only quote these figures to impress on you all the sheer scale of the annihilation of the innocent Cambodians at the hands of a few psychopathic fellow countrymen.

The outside of the building hides its grim secrets well:

Inside you can see how the classrooms were subdivided into small cells:

Everywhere you look you see the signs spelling out the rules of behaviour expected of prisoners:

(as though the poor wretches had any choice in the matter)

And this is one example of how they were treated:

Man's inhumanity to man knows no bounds at times.

Several rooms were devoted to row upon row upon row of the photos of prisoners taken at the time of their arrest. There were also photos of how many of those same prisoners looked after their interrogation but this was all too distressing for me to chronicle so I hope you will forgive me this lack of courage.

On the right: Duch, the chief of S-21, the others were those leaders of Democratic Kampuchea who were found so were able to be put on trial:

Large posters depicting how life was in those days:

The memorial erected in recognition of those who died:

Along with a roll call:

I had the honour of meeting one of the very few survivors, he managed to avoid torture and death by being a talented artist who painted an incredibly realistic portrait of Pol Pot which so pleased the man that the artist was spared the fate of nearly all of the other prisoners:

His lack of bitterness and hopes for the future stability of his beloved country was humbling.

Then a few miles from this house of horrors lie The Killing Fields, made famous by David Puttnam's Oscar winning film of the same name. It was to here that many of the prisoners of S-21 were transported for their final days on earth once there was no more space for bodies in or near the prison grounds. Due first of all to the scarcity of, then the high cost of, ammunition prisoners were battered to death with whatever implements were to hand. Walking through the grounds of The Kilłing Fields it is impossible for the mind of a normal human being to comprehend such utter barbarity despite having the facts and figures in front of you and seeing with your own eyes the records of evidence.

The museum:

The Memorial to those who died:

A sobering and distressing day, what more can I say?