S-21 Prison & The Killing Fields

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Between 1975 and 1979 the Khmer Rouge regime terrorized the people of Cambodia, torturing and murdering hundreds of thousands of people (some say they are responsible for up to 2.5 millions deaths). In 1975 the Khmer Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh, took over a central high school building and turned it into an interrogation/torture camp.


Today it is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Much of the prison is left as it was found with torture devices and all. An estimated 17,000 people were held, photographed, tortured and interrogated here. Most were then taken to Choeung Ek, the most notorious of the Killing Fields. Several rooms of the school now have the thousands of prisoner photographs on display. It is a terrifying place.


The Choeung Ek Kiling Fields are about 15km outside of Phnom Penh. 8,895 bodies were found here. At the site there is a large Buddhist stupa with glass sides containing 5,000 skulls of the victims. The field itself it strangely serene; grass has grown over many of the ditches. You can stand in the middle and realize that the surrounding mounds and craters were mass graves where many were burried alive or beaten to save bullets. As I stood there I saw more butterflies in the field than I have ever seen before.

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