Yukon Jay - 小祥

The Darkest Side of Humanity

Ever since I visited the Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, I asked myself whether I should show these pictures to people because they are disturbing and uncomforting, to put it mildly. This is Asia's version of the Nazi regime and holocaust, however, the fundamentals behind the revolution emulate that of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-76). But after watching NBC's Inside Edition story on this topic (and after talking to Jon), I decided to put these pictures up....

I dont understand the complexity of Cambodia's history, but here's what happened in simple terms. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, implemented one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of a society ever attempted; its goal was to transform Cambodia into a Maoist, peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. Within 2 weeks of the Khmer Rouge coming to power the entire population of teh capital and provincial towns, including the sick, elderly and infirm, was forced to march out to teh countryside and undertake slave labour in mobile work teams - preparing teh fields, digging irrigation canals - for 12 to 15 hours a day. Currency was abolished (maybe that's why the currency is mostly in US dollars instead of riel) and postal services were halted. Except for flights to Beijing (China was providing aid and advisers to the Khmer Rouge), the country was cut off from the outside world.

In 1975 Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). It soon became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country.

This is the high school that was turned into the prison.... now called the Tuol Sleng Museum.

Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge was meticulous in keeping records of its barbarism. Each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed, sometimes before and after torture. Several foreigners from Australia, France and the USA were also held at S-21 before being murdered. The museum displays include room after room of photographs covering the walls from floor to ceiling virtually all of the men, women and children pictured were later killed.

When the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in early 1979, it found only 7 prisoners alive at S-21. Fourteen others had been tortured to death as Vietnamese forces were closing in on the city. (Let me get this straight... The US government waged war against the communist Vietnamese who had done nothing like what the Khmer Rouge is doing, and yet the Americans turned a blind on what was happening in Cambodia? And of all people, it was the Vietnamese who fought Pol Pot and his regime. Like they haven't suffered enough after fighting the Americans... now they had to fight Pol Pot and put up with his gorilla warfare.)

Between 1975 and 1978 about 17,000 men, women, children and infants (including 9 Westerners) who had been detained and tortured at S-21 were transported to the extermination camp of Choeung Ek. They were often bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting precious bullets.

More than 8,000 skulls, arranged by sex and age, are visible behind the clear glass panels of the Memorial Supa, which was erected in 1988.

The remains of 8,985 people, many of whom were bound and blindfolded, were exhumed in 1980 from mass graves; 43 of the 129 communal graves here have been left untouched. Fragments of human bone and bits of cloth are scattered around the disinterred pits.

Posted by Jay at August 24, 2004 09:14 PM