Leseprobe

C A M B O D I A | P H N O M P E N H 6 7 14 white stone tombs in the inner courtyard symbolise the last 14 of the prison’s torture victims found on the Tuol Sleng site. The permanent exhibition at the historic site shows the classrooms of the former Tuol Svay Prey High School converted into prison cells by the Khmer Rouge. It examines in detail the history of the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror between 1975 and 1979 and in particular the crimes committed in Tuol Sleng Prison. Con­ siderable space is devoted to displaying thou- sands of photos of the people detained in “S21”. The museum also shows paintings by Tuol Sleng survivor Vann Nath, whose works depict the inhumane conditions of detention and torture. Location: Phnom Penh, 113 th St., Boeung Keng Kang III, Chamkarmorn Internet: www.tuolsleng.gov.kh The “S21” was subordinated to the Ministry of Defence under the leadership of Son Sen. The prison complex itself also supplied several detention and execution facilities, including the Prey Sar Prison (“S24”) and Choeung Ek, an execution site about 12 kilometres south of Phnom Penh. The prison staff numbered around 1,700. After the Khmer Rouge took over the school grounds, the entire campus was en­ closed by an electric barbed wire fence. The corridors between the building wings and the windows of the classrooms, which were con- verted into prison and torture cells, were also fenced in with barbed wire. Prisoners were detained in different parts of the building, depending on their assigned category. For­ merly high-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge, who were branded “traitors” by the regime, were imprisoned in two rooms on the ground floor of Building A. In the classrooms of the B, C, and D sections of the building, tiny isolation cells with a floor area of 1.6 square metres were constructed. The upper floors contained mass detention cells for 40 to 50 detainees. Prisoners were strictly prohibited from tal­ king to one another. They were chained to the ground, and their every movement—including getting up, sitting down or turning around— required the consent of the guards. Non- compliance with the rules was punished with torture. Buildings adjacent to the main wing were used by the prison administration for the interrogation and torture of the detainees. Those who survived the cruel torture and inhumane conditions of detention were bru- tally executed outside the city after forced confessions on the “Killing Fields”. In many cases, the prisoners had to dig their own graves. After the collapse of the Khmer Rouge’s “Stone Age Communism” and the liberation of Phnom Penh by Vietnamese troops in early 1979, only twelve prisoners, including four children, escaped execution in Tuol Sleng. The Exhibition of thousands of photos of the detainees in “S21”