“When I walked around this place feel like it is just an old school but it was a place that innocent peoples were killed and tortured brutally”
During the afternoon, on third day of the trip. I visited the memorial place of suffering and bitterness in Cambodia history that is “Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum” More than half of Cambodians were tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge regime.
The brutal memories started from Pol pot and his Khmer Rouge seized the power and governed Cambodia. He abandoned Capitalism and carried out a policy to turn Cambodia into Classless society. The Khmer Rouge relocated the urban population into the agricultural communes and forced them to become farmers in labor camps. Intellectuals, literate persons, students were killed or took them to Tuol Sleng prison for investigated their profiles, tortured and killed brutally.
Inside the gate, I saw the Classroom buildings face a grass courtyard and lots of trees. This was a school and Khmer rouge changed this place to a brutal prison. In each classroom turned to interrogation rooms, torturing rooms and jails, the grisly photographs on the wall show the prisoner’s bodies with blood underneath that was tortured to death. I feel sadness and can’t imagine that human can do with others brutally.
Prisoners detained, they ate only one meal a day that is three spoons of mush without any side dish, so the prisoners must catch lizards and insects for hunger relief but they must beware the punishment by the guards if they saw it. Moreover, the prisoners must obey the strict regulations and unwritten rules such as; must immediately answer the questions without wasting time to reflect, do not tell any either about your immoralities or the revolution, while getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all, etc. every prisoners’ actions must ask for permission from the guards including using the toilet and change the sleeping side. Sometime they were forced to eat human feces and drink urine. If someone breaks the rules, they will get many lashes of electric wire. Prisoners took a bath one or four days a week by gathered in the same room and wait for the guard sprayed water to inside, so do not mention about diseases or dirty. The pressure and suffering of prisoners from those actions force them to accept the allegations easier.
To force a confession, the prisoners were tortured hard to force them to confess and killed brutally. The electric shock or press the skin by hot metal instruments are simple, the guards of Tuol Sleng can design the torture more savagely. For example; hanging head down into bucket which contain full water and lock the wrist inside that the prisoners cannot bend their body to breath, pulling out the fingernails and pouring alcohol on the wounds, using the poisonous animals, kill the babies in front of their mothers by catch their ankle and trash them to the wall or trees. Cambodians lived under the Khmer rouge regime for 5 years, after that they were driven out by Vietnamese army.
Nowadays, it has improved the landscape by cleaned up the building and planted more trees. When I walked around this place feel like it is just an old school but it was a place that innocent peoples were killed and tortured brutally. It was genocide of the Cambodian by the Cambodian. I felt the painful are still here underneath the peace atmosphere and when I listened the stories I was really sad for the victims and also feel how lucky am I that my country haven’t had the painful period in the history like this.
May all of the victims rest in peace…
Writer :Ms. Mukrawe Chimphanao, ASEAN Stduies Centre.MCU.
