Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21), Phnom Penh, Cambodia

**Stamp** · 10th September 2012 22:04

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (Khmer: សារមន្ទីរឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្មប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ទួលស្លែង) is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. Tuol Sleng (Khmer [tuəl slaeŋ]) means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "Strychnine Hill".

Formerly the Chao Ponhea Yat High School,^[1] named after a Royal ancestor of King Norodom Sihanouk, the five buildings of the complex were converted in August 1975, four months after the Khmer Rouge won the civil war,^[2] into a prison and interrogation center. The Khmer Rouge renamed the complex "Security Prison 21" (S-21) and construction began to adapt the prison to the inmates: the buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire, the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture chambers, and all windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent escapes.
From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (some estimates suggest a number as high as 20,000, although the real number is unknown). 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 previous 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 murdered.^[1] Those arrested included some of the highest ranking communist politicians such as Khoy Thoun, Vorn Vet and Hu Nim. Although the official reason for their arrest was "espionage", these men may have been viewed by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot as potential leaders of a coup against him. Prisoners' families were often brought en masse to be interrogated and later murdered at the Choeung Ek extermination center.
In 1979, the prison was uncovered by the invading Vietnamese army. In 1980, the prison was reopened by the government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea as a historical museum memorializing the actions of the Khmer Rouge regime.
The museum is open to the public, and receives an average of 500 visitors every day.^{[citation needed]}

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We visited this museum in January 2011. The images speak for themselves.

**goo_stewart** · 11th September 2012 14:53

The skulls have gone, some say that is a good thing, I think that the horror of the skulls was such that it actually made the place feel more real. The modern version of S-21 is a bit sanitized (if you can believe that), it has a more Disney feel to it, albeit it a grim Disney. I have been to the place 4 times over the years, I always think back to my first visit in 1996, it was a shocker. Really. Fucking shocking.

**Stamp** · 11th September 2012 16:38

Originally Posted by goo_stewart

The skulls have gone,

Probably moved to Choeung Ek???

**goo_stewart** · 11th September 2012 16:59

I hope so, but I don't know what happened to them. Choeung Ek has remained the same over the years as far as I can tell.

**Killing Me Softly 101** · 16th September 2012 06:47

I was there in !995 and the place now looks more sanitized, I was walking though the field in back when I realized that much of the 'ground' was little bits of human bone and tiny pieces of the checkerboard cloth the prisoners wore. The shrine pogoda that houses the sculls has be done over. Back then you could still see the bloodstains on the floor. And the feeling about PP was one of decay and death. The Russian market had large dried marijuana plants on dispay for sale, along with AK47s, and there were shops where you could get bombs and landmines....
My local friend had to be home by 8:00 pm as his neighborhood put up razor wire every night. I hung out at heart of Darkness Bar.............
It was the only place in SEA that I ever felt compared to the streets of South Central, or the barrios of Tijuana, or Lima or BOLIVIA>
It doesn't have that impending doom feeling anymore.

**goo_stewart** · 16th September 2012 07:39

^I have seen a shooting outside the HoD. Scary stuff back then. I remember it being a dark and dingy pokey little place, not the almost superclub of today. However, I can't remember too much of the details about the place, I have always been drunk when entering the establishment

**Killing Me Softly 101** · 17th September 2012 04:27

Yep it was a tiny hole in the wall. Owner gave good advice. Was friendly. PP was indeed a spooky place then. Cutting edge dangerous.

**IsaanAlex** · 17th September 2012 13:35

I visited the museum as well.

I was struck by the fact that I was in a typical school...but of course that all manner of nasty things had occurred there.

There were no wooden cells at that time, and I didn't see the wooden contraption device, either.

I'm quite sure I didn't miss them so don't know what to make of it.

And I have read a few books on the Pol Pot regime and the Khmer Rouge era. It was very interesting and paints a far more complex picture than most assume.

The original ideas were interesting and somewhat well-intentioned.

The political climate at the time, realpolitiks of the day, and people really fucked things up.

One simple example being the famine of the era.

The government set unrealistically high food quotas for the cooperatives to meet; the goal being that the food was then to be sold and reinvested in proper farming equipment/technology, in order to eventually have Cambodia become a totally self-sufficient nation.

The local commanders would then, out of hope for praise (and later fear) inflate production numbers by up to double...and then give their allotted 50%, for example.

Do the math and we can see (just one small example of) how things were to become so fucked up...