Day 7 – Sunday 4th January – S-21 Toul Sleng

In 1969, the US carpet bombed the Cambodian border zones because the Viet Cong had bases there. This bombing later spread to the whole country. In 1970 Cambodia entered a 5 year civil war after the government was overthrown by the Military leader Lon Nol. The deposed government (who was led by the former King) got aligned with the guerillas of the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot. Because of the civil war, violence and shortages, many people moved from the countryside into the cities in search of a new and better life. Others joined the Khmer Rouge to take on the military regime On the 17th of April 1975 the Khmer Rouge seized power in Phnom Penh. Pol Pot’s model state was to be run by the peasants for the peasants. There were “base” people and “new” people. The base people were the country peasants and the new people were the city dwellers (including those who had moved there during the civil war), intellectuals, diplomats, business leaders.

Pol Pot cleared Phnom Penh and within a month of his taking power it was basically a ghost town. He also abolished the monetary system and people were fed based on their work, hence the population were tied to the place that the government decided they should work. The “new” people were arrested and made to confess their “crimes”. When asked their profession, people who refused to answer were killed. People who admitted to be doctors, engineers, academics etc, were killed along with all their family members under the moto “to change the grass, first you have to kill the roots”.

In Phnom Penh, a former school in a residential suburb was converted into a detention centre known as security office 21 or S-21. Today it is the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. The buildings in the complex were given simple names – buildings A to D. Building A was where people were tortured, the other buildings were where they were imprisoned. In building A, on the tour, were some implements of torture in each of the class rooms and some black and white photos of how the fourteen final victims were found when the Vietnamese took over Phnom Penh on 7th January 1979. Those 14 victims are now buried in the central courtyard of Toul Sleng. The pictures and exhibits created a very powerful depiction of what went on in the prison for four years.

The school class rooms in the other buildings were converted to prison cells. On level 1 were bricked wall cells – 80cm by 2m – tiny. The doors are only just big enough for us to get through. There were 11 tiny cells in each small class room. On level 2, were similar cells, but made of wood and on level 3, the top level, there were just standard class rooms where the prisoners were shackled together on the floor. Only building C is still completely intact the way that it was when the city was liberated, with the tiny cells and the barbed wire fences. The barbed wire was to stop the prisoners trying to commit suicide by throwing themselves off the balconies.

People stayed in S-21 from a number of weeks to up to 7 or 8 months. All of them were photographed and had their confessions documented. These photographs now make up the rather harrowing displays that you see while visiting Toul Sleng. This meticulous documentation was the same process as used by the Nazis in their concentration camps. Originally, it was the “new” people who were processed there, but as the regime became more and more paranoid, they started terminating their own people. There is talk of “generations” of guards, as the existing guards were exterminated and replaced with new guards, who then met with the same fate.
There are now exhibitions in Toul Sleng showing people who lived through Pol Pot’s regime, there thoughts of life at that time, tales of the fate fo some of their family members and recent pictures of where they are now. There were also pictures and tales of some of the people who worked at S-21.

S-21 is one of 167 security offices throughout Cambodia, there are 343 killing sites that contain nearly 20,000 mass graves throughout the country. There is no absolute figure for how many people were killed during the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror, but estimates are between 1 and 3 million people and as a percentage of the population, it is the worst case of genocide recorded. Our guide had lost virtually all of her family during those 4 years.

At the time of liberating S-21 there were 7 survivors, but more than 17,000 people had been “processed” through the system. The 7 were allowed to survive because they had skills that could be used – a carver, factory worker etc. As we were doing our tour, our guide told us that they grey haired guide taking the couple around behind us was one of those 7. Most people weren’t killed in S-21, although many did die there of starvation. They were taken to Choeung Ek, “the killing fields” to be brutally clubbed to death.

The Pol Pot regime was in power for less than 4 years, but in that time they turned an entire country into a “prison without walls”. They destroyed many of the cultural icons of the country and murdered or starved to death a large portion of the population. There were rumours of the atrocities being committed, but it wasn’t until the country was liberated in 1979 that the extent of the atrocities became apparent.

Cambodia is still grappling with its past. Pol Pot was eventually captured, but died before standing trial. The trial of 10 people is currently in process, but is a laboured process and it is doubtful that any of these now old men will ever see court or punishment.