Toul Sleng

Toul Sleng prison was the main detention center for political prisoners in the Khmer Rouge (KR) reign from 1975 to 1979. Formerly a primary school it was converted to a prison and torture center after the KR had depopulated Phnom Penh in 1975.  Over 20,000 people were detained, tortured and made to confess here before being taken a short distance out of town and killed.

Prior to coming here I was hesitant about visiting this place because it had been turned into a tourist attraction which I found more than a little distasteful. Once here however I thought I should get it out of the way even if just to cement home, in real terms, the horror this country suffered less than 40 years ago. The visit has left me sad and angry.

Up to 2 million people died during the KR reign. Some of those from malnutrition (KR stopped all trade because capitalism was bad so nutritious food was in short supply) and disease (KR killed most of the doctors for being bourgeois then had completely untrained cadre running the couple of hospitals that were left operating). A large number were murdered for being 'enemies'. Their 'crimes' could have been anything from not working hard enough to trying to run away or even just being informed on by someone jealous or settling old scores. They were killed with plastic bags over the head or by being beaten in the head with axles and the like. Bullets were too precious to be used.

It is ironic that Toul Sleng has become the main monument to the madness of the KR because it was mostly used to kill Khmer Rouge members. All over the country there are literally hundreds of "killing fields", mass graves of the many innocent victims, yet this place, because it is in the capital city and because of the neurotic insistence that everyone who passed through it be photographed, numbered, made to confess and then killed, their name ticked off the list, meant  that it is the only place in the country where a true record was kept of the deadliness of the KR.

Torture room

From the outside it looks like any other school. Once in the buildings however you find torture rooms, individual and group cells. The horror, pain and suffering that happened here is almost palatable. One can only imagine the last moments of the victims as they finally gave in to the pain and admitted that they were traitors to the cause. Generally the favoured confession to extract was that they were in the pay of the CIA. Once the confession was written and signed they were of no further use to the organisation and were taken at night in groups of 30 - 50 about 16km out of Phnom Penh and killed like animals at a slaughter house.

20,000 of them.

Cell block

Single cell

There was no mercy at all. Male, female, young and old all must confess and die. And so they did.

All in all a very sad place. It makes me angry that only a few have ever been brought to justice for these crimes. In fact many senior members of the KR are in government today in modern Cambodia. This means that the chances of the killers and their puppet masters ever being made to answer for their crimes is slim.

All the people in the photos above are dead. The most poignant for me was this one, knowing that the baby would have been killed along side his/her mother is very sad.