There were killing fields across Kampuchea during the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge but the center for crimes against humanity was in a former high school in Phnom Penh known as Tuol Sleng, S-21.
It was designed for the enemies of the new state, who were tortured until they confessed, then they were killed. Kaing Khek Lev, a former school teacher known as Duch, ran the infamous torture center where as many as 17,000 men, women and children died there between 1975 and 1979.
Some of the charges against Duch:
“There were autopsies carried out on live persons, there was medical experimentation, and people were bled to death. These were crimes against humanity admitted by Duch.” One of “the four forms of torture he officially condoned…was pouring water up victims’ noses.” This is also known as waterboarding, something former president George Bush is familiar with.
S-21 was known as “the place where people went in but never came out.” See Andy Brouwer’s Cambodia Tales.
From Andy’s website:
At any one time, the prison held between 1,000-1,500 prisoners. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed. In the early months of S-21′s existence, most of the victims were from the Lon Nol regime and included soldiers, government officials, as well as academics, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, monks, engineers, etc. Later, the party leadership’s paranoia turned on its own ranks and purges throughout the country saw thousands of party activists and their families brought to Tuol Sleng and liquidated. Photo from link at bottom.
“ Although many died under torture and were buried in shallow mass graves in the prison grounds, the majority of the 17,000 victims processed through S-21 were trucked at night to Choeung Ek, 15 kilometers outside of the city, forced to dig their own graves before being killed by a blow to the back of the head with a pickaxe or hoe to avoid wasting precious ammunition.”
Signs show who is buried in the open pits: “mass grave of more than 100 victims, children and women, whose majority were naked”, “mass grave of 166 victims without heads” and “mass grave of 450 victims.”
“A large tree stands prominently amongst the graves and I recalled a television documentary by Sir David Puttnam, the producer responsible for the film ‘The Killing Fields,’… He’d explained that the dark red stain running down the trunk of the tree is the result of where babies and small children were held by their feet and their heads smashed against the tree before being flung into an open pit…”
Andy Brouwer
Visit this excellent site for images from Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek, including paintings by Vann Nath, one of only seven Tuol Sleng survivors. Remember that atrocities can happen anywhere in ANY nation if the people become complacent.
Filed under: Kampuchea
Trackback Uri
