Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, also known as Tuol Sleng, is a museum about the Cambodian genocide in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia.

Overview

The museum is in a former secondary school. The Khmer Rouge used the school as Security Prison 21 (S-21) from 1976 to 1979. Within that three-year period, the Khmer Rouge imprisoned about 20,000 people at Tuol Sleng. 

Tuel Sleng was one of the estimated 150 torture and execution centers (known as "Killing Fields") created by the Khmer Rouge.Locard, Henri, State Violence in Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979) and Retribution (1979-2004) , European Review of History, Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2005, pp.121–143. 

History

Background

Tuol Sleng was originally a school called the Tuol Svay Prey High School. In March to April 1976, the Khmer Rouge, the ruling group in Cambodia, turned the school into a prison and interrogation center for people who were suspected of being against the government. They renamed it to Security Prison 21 (S-21).

Atrocities

If the Khmer Rouge even suspected that a person opposed Pol Pot's government, they would send the person to a killing center like Tuol Sleng. Prisoners were forced to confess to being members of the CIA or KGB, even if they were not. The Khmer Rouge used torture methods such as waterboarding, cutting, suffocation, drowning, ripping out fingernails and pouring alcohol on the wounds, electrocuting genitals, and forcing prisoners to eat human feces or urine. 

Some prisoners were used for medical experiments to help train surgeons. At least 100 prisoners were intentionally bled to death. The chief of the prison, Kang Kek Iew (also known as "Duch"), admitted that "live prisoners were used for surgical study and training. Draining blood was also done."

Most prisoners stayed at Tuol Sleng for two to three months before being executed. Kang Kek Iew ordered many executions. On a list containing the names of eight teenage prisoners and nine child prisoners, he wrote the order "Smash them to pieces." Many prisoners were stabbed in the neck or clubbed to death.

Survivors

The total amount of prisoners who were kept at Tuol Sleng is unknown, but it is usually estimated at around 20,000. The amount of survivors is also unknown. There are twelve confirmed survivors, including seven adults and five children (one child died shortly after liberation). 

These survivors say they were kept alive because they had talents and skills that the guards thought were important to keep. Some survivors, such as Chum Mey and Vann Nath, wrote and documented their experiences at Tuol Sleng.

 Discovery 

In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and liberated Tuol Sleng. A Vietnamese photographer named Hồ Văn Tây followed the smell of rotting corpses to Tuol Sleng and took many pictures. He was the first to document Tuol Sleng to the world outside Cambodia. 

Sometime between 1979 and 1980, Tuol Slong opened as a museum showcasing the actions committed by the prison guards.

Court trial

In 1997, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia was founded to hold trials for the culprits of the Cambodian genocide. On July 31, 2007, the chief of Tuol Sleng, Kang Kek Iew, was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

In February 2008, he was taken to Tuol Sleng and collapsed in tears after saying, "I ask for your forgiveness – I know that you cannot forgive me, but I ask you to leave me the hope that you might." He was first sentenced to 35 years, but his sentence was extended to life in prison in 2012. He died in 2020.

Footnotes

References

Category:Museums in Asia
Category:Cambodian genocide
Category:Concentration camps
Category:Organisations based in Cambodia