Saturday, March 3, 2012

Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide and the Killing Fields (Readers Discretion) (Phnom Phen, Cambodia)

For those who are aware of the genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, you know that Tuol Sleng Prison (S-21) and the Killings Fields stand as sad reminders of Cambodia's painful past. Over three million people where brutally murdered during the Khmer Rouge regime under the orders of Pol Pot and schools turned into torture prisons and empty fields turned into mass graves.

While this blog entry undoubtedly does not fit in with my blog theme, I think it is important to educate those who do not know what happened to the people of this wonderful country in the 70's.

S-21 use to be a school but taken over and turned into a prison/torture camp

'VIP' prison cell. When I looked up at the ceiling I saw blood splatter. It was one of the
worst feelings I've ever experienced.

  
Just some of the photographs of the people that came through S-21and were subsequently killed.
The Khmer Rouge meticulously documeted and photographed everyone that came through its prison doors.
Absolutely gut rentching looking into their eyes.

The man on the bottom right just breaks me

Everything is original from what it was back then


Original prisoner cells. There were blood stains on the tiles

Gallows


Skulls of some of the victims buried around the prison

Amazing, yet heartbreaking. This man is one of the seven people that survived the prison.
The only reason him and the other men were spared was because the Khmer Rouge
prison guards saw use in their artistic or mechanical skills. He now works on the grounds.



The Killings Fields as it is known is a former orchard that was converted into a mass grave site for thousands of Cambodians. It has since been exhumed but due to lack of funding not all the mass grave sites have been dug up. The majority of these sites contains anywhere from 100-400 bodies.


Excavated graves

Pieces of victims clothing coming out of the ground as the rain washes away the soil. When you are waking around you are constantly looking at the rags of cloth under your feet





Fragments of bone are continuously being exposed as the rain washes away the dirt