a road less travelled....: Tuol Sleng

On Saturday we visited a place called Tuol Sleng, the former office of S.21. For this entry I am not going to pretend that I know anything about the history of Cambodia, what I will do though, is supply some photographs, websites that I have seen referenced in regards to this part of the nations history and also some of the literature that was handed to me as I entered this Genocide Museum.

Toul Sleng is a Genocide Museum and the former security office of S.21 in ‘Democratic Kumpuchea’. Pol Pot (a name that he created, as it had no meaning and less syllables, making him more ‘working class’ than his previous name – Sa lut Sor) created this office in 1975, it is located in the middle of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The office was designed for detention, interrogation, inhumane torture and killing after confession from detainees was received and documented.

Prior to becoming S.21, the site hosted Tuol Sleng Primary School and Tuol Svay Prey High School.

Figures of prisoners that were held in S.21 are approximately as follows;

1975…..154

1976…..2250

1977…..2350

1978…...5765

** These numbers do not include children killed by the Khmer Rouge. This number is approximately 20, 000.

Overall, it is estimated that the Khmer Rouge regime killed between 2 and 3 million K’mai people, the majority of these being city dwelling, educated people.

At Tuol Sleng we saw an image of an Australian man, David Scott, which intrigued me. I did some further research and found that not one, but two Australians were killed by an order from Comrade Duch. For more information on David Scott and Ron Dean, two men who went sailing and ended up in the worst place at a worst time, click here.

In the same article is some information about Sydney Schanberg , one of the only westerners to escape the regime. His story is featured in an autobiography called Beyond the Killing Fields and there is a movie called the Killing Fields which provides some details of his story. I saw this before arriving in Cambodia and it is well worth watching. For more information on Sydney's story, please click here.

I wish to find out some more stories from the perspective of the K'mai people, however, these stories will have to be added to this blog as time goes on and I'm sure that eventually there will be many.

In 2001 the Cambodian National Assembly passed a law to create a court to try serious crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime 1975-1979. This court is called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea (Extraordinary Chambers or ECCC).

The government of Cambodia insisted that, for the sake of the Cambodian people, the trial must be held in Cambodia using Cambodian staff and judges together with foreign personnel. Cambodia invited international participation due to the weakness of the Cambodian legal system and the international nature of the crimes, and to help in meeting international standards of justice. An agreement with the UN was ultimately reached in June 2003 detailing how the international community will assist and participate in the Extraordinary Chambers.

Case 001 was the first case before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch, the former Chairman of the Khmer Rouge S-21 Security Center in Phnom Penh, is the defendant in Case 001.

This case is currently at appeal.

For more information on Comrade Duch, please click here.

There are four defendants in Case 002:

Nuon Chea, aged 84, former Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, for more information, please click here;
Ieng Sary, aged 85, former Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs, for more information, please click here;
Khieu Samphan, aged 79, former Head of State, for more information, please click here; and
Ieng Thirith, aged 78, former Minister of Social Affairs, for more information, please click here.

The four defendants were initially indicted and ordered to be sent for trial in a Closing Order issued by the Co-Investigating Judges on 15 September 2010. Following appeals from all four defendants, the Pre-Trial Chamber confirmed and partially amended the indictments and ordered the case to be sent for trial on 13 January 2011.

The defendants are indicted on charges of crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, genocide; and homicide, torture, and religious persecution within the meaning of the Cambodian Penal Code from 1956.

The trial is expected to commence in the first half of 2011.

At Tuol Sleng the had an art exhibition, some of the photos depicted in this are located below. They are painted by a Dutch man named Peter Klashorst, for more information on his works, please click here.