Once Upon A TYPE…

The word Tuol Sleng is recognised as the location where the Democratic Kampuchea regime, more commonly known as the Khmer Rouge regime, set up a prison to detain individuals accused of opposing Angkar. However, in the Khmer language, the word Tuol Sleng connotes a terrible meaning in itself. It is perhaps only a strange coincidence that the KR regime used this specific location as a prison. Tuol Sleng means ‘a poisonous hill or a place on a mound to keep those who bear or supply guilt’. From the moment I entered the place, goosebumps was felt heavily.

at the entrance you’ll see pictures of the people detained and tortured.

  left  to right -  introduction to the Tuol Sleng museum, barbed wires surrounds the wall of the compound, on this site 14 dead bodies were found.

The victims in the prison were taken from all parts of the country and from all walks of life. They were of different nationalities and included Vietnamese, Laotians, Thai, Indians, Pakistanis, British, Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders, an Australians, but the vast majority were Cambodians. The civilian prisoners composed of workers, farmers, engineers, technicians, intellectuals, professors, teachers, students, and even ministers and diplomats. Moreover, whole families of the prisoners, from the bottom to top, including their newly born babies, were taken there en masse to be exterminated.

The prisoners were kept in respective small cells and shackled with chains fixed to the walls or the concrete floors. Prisoners held in the large mass cells had one or both legs shackled to short or long pieces of iron bar. Then short iron bar was about 1 meter and was designed for 4 prisoners. The longer one was 6 meters and held 20 to 30 prisoners. Prisoners were fixed to the iron bar on alternating sides, so they had to sleep with their heads in opposite directions.

Before the prisoners were placed in the cells they were photographed, and detailed biographies of their childhood up to the dates of their arrests were recorded. Then they were stripped to their underwear. Everything was taken away from them. The prisoners, slept directly on the floors without any mats, mosquito nets or blankets.

Every morning at 4.30am, all prisoners were told to remove their shorts, down to the ankles, for inspection by prison staff. The they were told to do some physical exercise just by moving their hands and legs up and down for half an hour, even though their legs remained restrained by iron bars. The prison staff inspected the prisoners 4 times per day. During each inspection, the prisoners had to put their arms behind their backs and at the same time raise their legs so that the guards could check whether or not the shackles were loose. If loose, shackles are replaced. The prisoners had to defecate into small iron buckets and urinate into small plastic buckets kept in their cells. They required to ask for permission from the prison guards in advance of relieving themselves; otherwise, they were beaten or they recieved 20 to 60 strokes with a whip as punishment. In each cell, the regulations were posted on small pieces of black board. See the picture.

  The prisoners were required to abide all the regulations. To do anything, even to alter their positions while trying to sleep, the inmates had first to ask permission from the prison guards. Anyone breeching these rules was severely beaten. Prisoners were bathed by being rounded up into a collective room where a tube of running water was placed through the window to splash on them for a short time. Bathing was irregular, allowed only once every two or three days, and sometimes once a fortnight. Unhygienic living conditions caused the prisoners to become infected with diseases like skin rashes and various other diseases. There was no medicine for treatment.

inmates are not allowed to say a word!

this was a cell for VIP’s - ministers and high ranking officials.

this man was killed after the interrogation. His stomach was taken and his liver was eaten by children, they believed that when they eat the liver of a man, they will become more intelligent, his gall bladder was sent to China for medicinal purposes. During those days, Cambodia was the biggest supplier of gall bladder to China, no wonder why they kill so many people!
the jars were used for torturing the inmates, it was filled with filthy water and worms. Inmates were tied and the guards pulls them up and down, inmates tends to lose their consciousness after sometime, guards will then drown them in the stinking water and when they regained their self again, guards will continue the pulling of the rope up and down till the inmate die.

pictures of the victims

tools they used for torturing people. While I was inside the museum, I can’t help myself imagining how the life of the people here were during Pol Pot’s time. Mother’s were separated from their children, if the guards believed that you oppose Angkar they will punish you, women’s nipples were cut and will be bitten by scorpions. Guards will whip you mant times then will rub your wounds with chili and salt. Nails were pulled by pliers then alcohol will be poured on it. Rape among women was rampant! Terrible that’s all I could say!

picture from the left was taken at the killing fields, it was were they bring inmates at kills them by hitting with a big paddle. Some 300 skulls were dug inside the compound of Tuol Sleng and now kept in the cabinets.

I can’t understand why these things happened before, in the Philippines, war also happened, many Filipinos died,too! But here, it was genocide! I can’t believe that people in power like Pol Pol wished these things to happen. Everybody wants change, a change for better not for worse, but for him, he tried to exterminate all the people who aged more than 20, believing that they were old and will not be able to change anymore. Soldiers were so young, they were between 10-20 years old, every year, new soldiers arrives, the old ones were killed by the new ones.

Up to now, I’m still upset, horrified but blessed that I wasn’t alive during those days, I am thankful that I am enjoying the best things in life now. I guess time will not come to me to be able to understand the idea of war, it’ll never sink in to my mind why people have to kill other people.