On Monday 18th February we had a day trip to Tuol Sleng Prison. S-21 (which stands for "security office") or Tuol Sleng was the most secret organ of the Khmer Rouge (KR) or Angkar's regime. It was KR's premier security institution, specifically designed for interrogation and extermination of anti-Angkar elements.
In 1962, S-21 was a high school called "Ponhea Yat" High School, named after a Royal ancestor of King Sihanouk. During the Lon Nol regime, the name was changed to Tuol Svay Prey High School. Behind the school fence, there were two wooden buildings with thatched roofs, which were constructed before 1970 as a primary school. Today, all of these buildings are called Tuol Sleng and form part of the museum of genocidal crimes. "Tuol Sleng" literally means a poisonous hill or a place on a mound to keep those who bear of supply guilt [towards Angkar].
S-21 is located in Tuol Svay prey sub-district, south of Phnom Penh and covers an area of 600 x 400 metres. During the KR regime, it was enclosed by two folds of corrugated iron sheets, all covered with dense, electrified barbed wire, to prevent anyone from escaping the prison. Houses around the four school buildings were used as administration, interrogation and torture offices. The torture methods used included acid, being submerged into a vat of water and having fingernails removed.
The KR judicial process for minor or political crimes began with a warning from Angkar. People receiving more ythan two warnings were sent for "re-education", which meant near certain death. People were often encourage to confess to Angkar for their pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes, which usually included some kind of free-market activity, having had contact with a foreign source such as a US missionary or international relief or government agency or contact with any foreigner or the outside world, and they would be told that Angkar would forgive them and wipe the slate clean. This meant being taken away to a place such as Tuol Sleng or the Killing Fields for torture and/or execution.
According to reports found at the Tuol Sleng Archive, approximately 12,500 prisoners came in and out of the prison between 1975 to June 1978. Those who confessed were sent to the killing fields to be murdered. Those who did not confess were tortured to death. 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, Thai, Indians, Pakistanis, British, Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders and Australians but the vast majority were Cambodians. The prisoners consisted of workers, farmers, engineers, technicians, intellectuals, professors, teachers, students and ministers and diplomats. Whole families of the prisoners, including their newborn babies were taken there en masse to be exterminated. Behind one of the school buildings, 300 skulls and bones of those prisoners tortured to death were found, some of which are on display there.
The duration of imprisonment ranged from two to four months, although some important policical prisoners were held between six and seven months. Prisoners were kept in small cells and shackled with chains fixed to the walls or concrete They were required to ask permission from the prison guards in advance of going to the toilet in small buckets kept in their cells, otherwise they were beaten or received 20 to 60 strokes with a whip as punishment. Bathing was irregular, allowed only once every two or three days and sometimes once a fortnight.
In each cell, the regulations were posted on small pieces of blackboard:
1. You must answer accordingly to my questions. Do not turn them away.
2. Do not try to hide the facts by making pretexts of this and that. You are strictly prohibited for you to contest me.
3. Do not be a fool for you are a chap who dares to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Do not tell me either about your immoralities or the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing. Sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Do not make pretexts about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your jaw of traitor.
9. If you do not follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
10.If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.
Anyone breaching these rules was severely beaten.
The number of workers in the complex totalled 1,720. Within each unit, there were several sub-units composed of male and female children, ranging from 10 to 15 years of age. These included young children trained and selected by the KR to work as guards at S-21. Most of them started out as normal before growing increasingly evil. They were exceptionally cruel and disrespectful towards the prisoners and their elders. Workers were also replaced at the end of each year and then murdered, as after being in the prison for 12 months, they were considered to have too much knowledge about the regime. The horrors were finally exposed when the Vietnamese marched into Phnom Penh in 1979 and the KR fled to the countryside. Before they did so, they murdered the remaining prisoners who were shackled by their feet to their cells. 12 prisoners who worked in and around the prison managed to hide and escape.
After the prison we headed to one of the Killing Fields (Choeng Ek) located about 30 minutes drive from the city. The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia (about 19000) where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the KR. The massacres ended in 1979 when Vietnam invaded the country (they had been provoked by Cambodia) who tried to claim some of land around the Vietnamese border as their own) and toppled the KR. Pol Pot fled to the countryside near the Thai border where he stayed until he died in 1998 of natural causes. Estimates of the number of dead are nearly 3 million of a population of around 7 million. At the Killing Field we visited, 126 mass graves were found and 86 of them have been excavated. The skulls are kept in a temple which is at the entrance to the grounds and the holes were they were found are kept empty. On the paths around the holes, every year the rains wash away the soil and new bones and clothing come to the surface. We also saw the Killing Tree, which was a tree with a wide tree trunk and the KR killed young babies by smashing their heads against it. The KR would also use palm leaves, which had very sharp serrated edges, to cut people's heads off (pretty grim).
Our tour guide for the day was very good and was six years old at the time the KR took over Phnom Penh. His parents worked for a foreign organisation and were, therefore, on the KR's hit list. His parents sent him and his 6 siblings to a labour camp and told them to tell the KR that his parents were dead (otherwise this would mean a fate no certain than death). For 4 years he was forced to work 12 hour days farming the land and was only given a small bowl of watery rice to eat every day. Every month they had to go to re-education lessons. His father died of malaria in one of the camps but his mother survived and they were reunited after the war.
He told us that one of his neighbours used to be an officer of the KR and he wanted to kill him for what he had done (the fact he had three kids stopped him). The shocking thing is that in 1994, thousands of KR soldiers surrendered in a government amnesty and Pol Pot's deputies became members of the government. They were able to walk around freely in expensive cars and live in expensive houses until November 2007, when they were arrested on genocide charges. After years of debate about funding, a war crimes tribunal was set up in 2007 to try surviving KR leaders. Although the surviving leaders were arrested in November and are currently in prison, it is unlikely that their trial will start before 2010 (funding for the tribunal is expected to run out in May this year) and many Cambodians fear that they will never be tried before they die. The other shocking fact is the the current King's father - Sihanouk - supported Pol Pot and his regime and was responsible for granting amnesty to some of the leaders.
It was quite a harrowing day for us and after the trip, we were all very subdued. I can't understand what sort of dictator would kills millions of people in such a horrific way - Pol Pot himself was a former teacher - but there will always be psychotic people around. If it hadn't been for the Vietnamese invading, he probably would have wiped out the entire population. As a result, approximately 50 per cent of the Cambodia's population is under 18 years of age (life expectancy is 57 years old). The current population is around 14 million.
In 1962, S-21 was a high school called "Ponhea Yat" High School, named after a Royal ancestor of King Sihanouk. During the Lon Nol regime, the name was changed to Tuol Svay Prey High School. Behind the school fence, there were two wooden buildings with thatched roofs, which were constructed before 1970 as a primary school. Today, all of these buildings are called Tuol Sleng and form part of the museum of genocidal crimes. "Tuol Sleng" literally means a poisonous hill or a place on a mound to keep those who bear of supply guilt [towards Angkar].
S-21 is located in Tuol Svay prey sub-district, south of Phnom Penh and covers an area of 600 x 400 metres. During the KR regime, it was enclosed by two folds of corrugated iron sheets, all covered with dense, electrified barbed wire, to prevent anyone from escaping the prison. Houses around the four school buildings were used as administration, interrogation and torture offices. The torture methods used included acid, being submerged into a vat of water and having fingernails removed.
The KR judicial process for minor or political crimes began with a warning from Angkar. People receiving more ythan two warnings were sent for "re-education", which meant near certain death. People were often encourage to confess to Angkar for their pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes, which usually included some kind of free-market activity, having had contact with a foreign source such as a US missionary or international relief or government agency or contact with any foreigner or the outside world, and they would be told that Angkar would forgive them and wipe the slate clean. This meant being taken away to a place such as Tuol Sleng or the Killing Fields for torture and/or execution.
According to reports found at the Tuol Sleng Archive, approximately 12,500 prisoners came in and out of the prison between 1975 to June 1978. Those who confessed were sent to the killing fields to be murdered. Those who did not confess were tortured to death. 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, Thai, Indians, Pakistanis, British, Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders and Australians but the vast majority were Cambodians. The prisoners consisted of workers, farmers, engineers, technicians, intellectuals, professors, teachers, students and ministers and diplomats. Whole families of the prisoners, including their newborn babies were taken there en masse to be exterminated. Behind one of the school buildings, 300 skulls and bones of those prisoners tortured to death were found, some of which are on display there.
The duration of imprisonment ranged from two to four months, although some important policical prisoners were held between six and seven months. Prisoners were kept in small cells and shackled with chains fixed to the walls or concrete They were required to ask permission from the prison guards in advance of going to the toilet in small buckets kept in their cells, otherwise they were beaten or received 20 to 60 strokes with a whip as punishment. Bathing was irregular, allowed only once every two or three days and sometimes once a fortnight.
In each cell, the regulations were posted on small pieces of blackboard:
1. You must answer accordingly to my questions. Do not turn them away.
2. Do not try to hide the facts by making pretexts of this and that. You are strictly prohibited for you to contest me.
3. Do not be a fool for you are a chap who dares to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Do not tell me either about your immoralities or the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing. Sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Do not make pretexts about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your jaw of traitor.
9. If you do not follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
10.If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.
Anyone breaching these rules was severely beaten.
The number of workers in the complex totalled 1,720. Within each unit, there were several sub-units composed of male and female children, ranging from 10 to 15 years of age. These included young children trained and selected by the KR to work as guards at S-21. Most of them started out as normal before growing increasingly evil. They were exceptionally cruel and disrespectful towards the prisoners and their elders. Workers were also replaced at the end of each year and then murdered, as after being in the prison for 12 months, they were considered to have too much knowledge about the regime. The horrors were finally exposed when the Vietnamese marched into Phnom Penh in 1979 and the KR fled to the countryside. Before they did so, they murdered the remaining prisoners who were shackled by their feet to their cells. 12 prisoners who worked in and around the prison managed to hide and escape.
After the prison we headed to one of the Killing Fields (Choeng Ek) located about 30 minutes drive from the city. The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia (about 19000) where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the KR. The massacres ended in 1979 when Vietnam invaded the country (they had been provoked by Cambodia) who tried to claim some of land around the Vietnamese border as their own) and toppled the KR. Pol Pot fled to the countryside near the Thai border where he stayed until he died in 1998 of natural causes. Estimates of the number of dead are nearly 3 million of a population of around 7 million. At the Killing Field we visited, 126 mass graves were found and 86 of them have been excavated. The skulls are kept in a temple which is at the entrance to the grounds and the holes were they were found are kept empty. On the paths around the holes, every year the rains wash away the soil and new bones and clothing come to the surface. We also saw the Killing Tree, which was a tree with a wide tree trunk and the KR killed young babies by smashing their heads against it. The KR would also use palm leaves, which had very sharp serrated edges, to cut people's heads off (pretty grim).
Our tour guide for the day was very good and was six years old at the time the KR took over Phnom Penh. His parents worked for a foreign organisation and were, therefore, on the KR's hit list. His parents sent him and his 6 siblings to a labour camp and told them to tell the KR that his parents were dead (otherwise this would mean a fate no certain than death). For 4 years he was forced to work 12 hour days farming the land and was only given a small bowl of watery rice to eat every day. Every month they had to go to re-education lessons. His father died of malaria in one of the camps but his mother survived and they were reunited after the war.
He told us that one of his neighbours used to be an officer of the KR and he wanted to kill him for what he had done (the fact he had three kids stopped him). The shocking thing is that in 1994, thousands of KR soldiers surrendered in a government amnesty and Pol Pot's deputies became members of the government. They were able to walk around freely in expensive cars and live in expensive houses until November 2007, when they were arrested on genocide charges. After years of debate about funding, a war crimes tribunal was set up in 2007 to try surviving KR leaders. Although the surviving leaders were arrested in November and are currently in prison, it is unlikely that their trial will start before 2010 (funding for the tribunal is expected to run out in May this year) and many Cambodians fear that they will never be tried before they die. The other shocking fact is the the current King's father - Sihanouk - supported Pol Pot and his regime and was responsible for granting amnesty to some of the leaders.
It was quite a harrowing day for us and after the trip, we were all very subdued. I can't understand what sort of dictator would kills millions of people in such a horrific way - Pol Pot himself was a former teacher - but there will always be psychotic people around. If it hadn't been for the Vietnamese invading, he probably would have wiped out the entire population. As a result, approximately 50 per cent of the Cambodia's population is under 18 years of age (life expectancy is 57 years old). The current population is around 14 million.
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