Today was the first full day in the city of Phnom Penh and the group headed off to S21 in the morning and Choeung Ek Genocide Centre in the afternoon
S21 stands for Security Prison Number 2 of Brother Number 1, and also known as Tuol Sleng. The buildings, once a school, housed between 14 000 to 20 000 inmates during the three years of the "Terrible Times" of the Khmer Rouge.
Brother Number 1 was Pol Pot, a former teacher, a devout Communist who aimed to reduce Cambodia (Kampuchea) to a classless peasant society. When Phnom Penh was evacuated 17th April 1976 over ttwo million people were forced into the rural areas to work in the fields. Pol Pot, did not tolerate any educated persons or doctors and professional persons so in order for his classless, and religion-less, society to work, anyone who represented the 'elite' was imprisoned, interrogated and eventually slaughtered. Doctors, singers, teachers, monks, people wearing glasses...all suffered the same fate.
Choeung Ek memorial stupa stands at one of the 300 'killing fields' in Kampuchea. prisoners were transported from S21 to be 'dispatched' and the instruments of death varied from a garden hoe to the fronds of the palm tree.
Paulie, our tour guide, was also a victim of the "Terrible Times" when she and her 5 brothers and three sisters and parents were forced out of their village in southern Kampuchea - she was seven at the time. Adults and children were separated so the young ones could be re-educated and indoctrinated with Khmer rouge doctrine. Her family was one of the more fortunate and once all was over they managed to re-unite having 'lost' only a brother and sister.
Click on the images for a larger version.
S21 stands for Security Prison Number 2 of Brother Number 1, and also known as Tuol Sleng. The buildings, once a school, housed between 14 000 to 20 000 inmates during the three years of the "Terrible Times" of the Khmer Rouge.
Brother Number 1 was Pol Pot, a former teacher, a devout Communist who aimed to reduce Cambodia (Kampuchea) to a classless peasant society. When Phnom Penh was evacuated 17th April 1976 over ttwo million people were forced into the rural areas to work in the fields. Pol Pot, did not tolerate any educated persons or doctors and professional persons so in order for his classless, and religion-less, society to work, anyone who represented the 'elite' was imprisoned, interrogated and eventually slaughtered. Doctors, singers, teachers, monks, people wearing glasses...all suffered the same fate.
Choeung Ek memorial stupa stands at one of the 300 'killing fields' in Kampuchea. prisoners were transported from S21 to be 'dispatched' and the instruments of death varied from a garden hoe to the fronds of the palm tree.
Paulie, our tour guide, was also a victim of the "Terrible Times" when she and her 5 brothers and three sisters and parents were forced out of their village in southern Kampuchea - she was seven at the time. Adults and children were separated so the young ones could be re-educated and indoctrinated with Khmer rouge doctrine. Her family was one of the more fortunate and once all was over they managed to re-unite having 'lost' only a brother and sister.
Click on the images for a larger version.
“You could feel the fear in the air as you walked around…it was wonderful to meet people who told their story.”
“Yesterday was a solemn day…we got to see the terrible things that happened in Cambodia. It is great to know they have honoured and given their respect to the victims.”
“Fascinating to see how the need for power caused the collapse of a whole country. How one man can order the taking of lives without a second thought? But stronger is the power of the mind…the power that says I have survived.”
“The state of oppression should not be bestowed on anyone…even worse the people weren’t treated as humans.”
“Yesterday was a solemn day…we got to see the terrible things that happened in Cambodia. It is great to know they have honoured and given their respect to the victims.”
“Fascinating to see how the need for power caused the collapse of a whole country. How one man can order the taking of lives without a second thought? But stronger is the power of the mind…the power that says I have survived.”
“The state of oppression should not be bestowed on anyone…even worse the people weren’t treated as humans.”