On April 17, 1975 the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in a civil war and embarked on a 3 year, 8 month, 20 day reign of terror. The entire populations of Phnom Penh and other cities were forceably relocated to the countryside to work as slaves for 12-15 hours/day in rice fields in the Khmer Rouge's efforts to restructure Cambodian society into a peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. 100's of thousands of these forced laborers died of malnutrition or disease as a result of the horrific conditions, backbreaking labor, and little food they saw in labor camps.
100's of thousands more; former government officials and military, the educated elite, sympathizers to the former king and government, and eventually even members of the Khmer Rouge whose loyalty was questioned, were tortured and executed.
It is estimated that 1.7 million Cambodians (about 20% of the population) died under the Khmer Rouge.
Toul Sleng Museum is the sight of a former high school taken over by the Khmer Rouge and turned into a prison ("S-21") where prisoners were detained, interrogated, tortured and processed for execution. The building itself is unremarkable from the outside, it looks like it could be a Motel 6 in Daytona Beach except for the 14 graves outside for the last 14 victims who were murdered as the final act of the torturers before they abandoned the prison (to remove "witnesses") while the Vietnamese invaded and ended the Khmer Rouge reign of terror.
The prison was run by Kaing Guek Eav (nicknamed "Duch"). He was the chief torturer and ordered the execution of the prisoners- a joint Cambodian-UN war crime tribunal charging him with the deaths of 12,380 prisoners began in February 2009 (yes, just this year!). 4 other former Khmer Rouge officials are also on trial.
The Killing Fields of Choeng Ek
The men, women and children tortured at S-21 were brought to Choeng Ek for execution. Most were killed by being bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting precious bullets.
In 1980 the remains of 8985 people were exhumed from mass graves. There are a total of 129 mass graves at the site, 43 have remained untouched.
In 1988 a memorial stupa (Buddhist tradition) was erected. It holds the remains of those exhumed bodies. The first 8 levels contain the skulls (which are on display) and the upper 3 levels contain the remaining bones. Myself and most of the other visitors bought flowers and incense and laid them at the stupa to honor the victims. It is a beautiful, peaceful site- which is incongruous to the horrors that took place at the site.
Sorry for all the sadness and history lessons today- but I felt it was important to see and understand more about this tragic time which is still affecting Cambodia to this day. Next post will have pretty pictures (and a little bit of history). m
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