S-21/Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields

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"To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss." This was one of many mottoes of the Khmer Rouge - sets the scene for S-21 and the Killing Fields.
S-21 (Security Office 21) was actually a high school before Pol Pot's regime converted it to a detention centre overnight for interrogation, torture and killing. It is estimated that 20,000 people (including children) were tortured/died at S-21. Average period of imprisonment/torture was 2-4 mths and 6-7 mths for political prisoners.

Barbed wire was everywhere to prevent anyone committing suicide ensuring they were adequately tortured and their ultimate 'confession' provided and recorded. Glass windows were installed (a luxury at the time) to minimise the sound of the screams. We'll not forget the graphic photos of prisoners being tortured or the 'tools' the Khmer Rouge used for torture. It was absolutely and totally horrendous - but you just can't go to Cambodia and not understand the sheer terror the people have lived through. When we left S-21 we were approached by so many beggers/amputees/burns victims. It was just horrific.

A 20 min tuk-tuk drive takes you to the Killing Fields. (one of many killing field sites around Phonh Penh) The photos speak for themselves and we were basically speechless - you feel sick as hell walking around the graves. You simply can not conceive that these things happened.
If anyone survived S-21 they were taken to the Killing Fields along with thousands of other victims from across Cambodia. Some prisoners were actually forced to dig their own graves. Some were buried alive. Because they were so weak after their months of torture and because the Khmer Rouge were on a mass genocide campaign, the graves were shallow - thus bones and clothes continue to come to the surface when there is heavy rainfall - 30 years on.

All in all the Killing Fields site itself was actually quite a peaceful place. The grim history is all around but you actually do feel that that you are at a quiet cemetery and that the victims are now at peace.

Next stop - Laos.

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Photos

Photos of some of the 20,000 victims of S-21
The Khmer Rouge maintained a comprehensive database of each and every victim.

Memorial at the Killing Fields
Monument to remember the dead. Although 'only' 20,000 died at this particular site, it is estimated 2 million died via Pol Pots regime which was about a quarter of S.E Asia's population at the time/ 5th of Cambodia's population.

Clothes of the victims - Killing Fields
30 years on - yet with with every wet season, when the rains fall, clothes and bones/teeth of the victims continue to come the surface. These are collected, cleaned and recorded - and displayed in various glass cases around the Killing Fields

Comments

[Becca]

S21
Liked your words of victims being at peace hinny and it is good to reflect on when we are so removed from such visual realities. Enjoy the next leg guys. x

[mum & dad]

birthday
bet that's one birthday you'll not forget in a hurry!! xx