N 10 :Tuol Sleng

I think only a few people from the older generation have heard this name. It is a detention centre in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and I want to write about it.

 We visited some tourist attraction sites in the morning and after we have rested for a while, we went out again in the evening to visit Tuol Sleng, because it also is a tourist attraction. It is also called ‘Killing Fields’ because many people perished there.

It is in the city and the three storey buildings had been a school. It is during Pol Pot’s regime ( he is a communist ) that they arrested many people and kept them in detention camp like this one , made people moved  to the countryside and made them worked in the fields  against their wills, kept people half – starved, and torture and killed them. In a country where the population is only about 20 millions, 2 million were killed then.

When we came into the ground a somber feeling came over me. The thing we saw first was a concrete slab right outside the building. Our guide explained to us that when the new government raided this place they discovered 14 dead people and so they buried the bodies there and had that slab over the grave.

Then we went to see the rooms. They are bare except for a tin bed with an iron chain attached to it. The walls are dirty and stained (maybe with blood). Some rooms have photos of people detained there and later killed. In those days they killed everybody who they think are their enemies and are not on their side. I think that Cambodian people still have not overcome the horror and grief they encounter in those years. Many mass graves are still being uncovered.

We went to see some more rooms like this one and later we came to bigger rooms where torture apparatus and thousands of photos of the people killed are displayed. Many written documents are also to be seen. By this time I can see only a few of us looking around.

I had seen photos of piles of skulls in magazines and I asked Sokhin our guide where they are and he took us to the farthest side of the building. The skulls are in a cupboard. I took some pictures and as we don’t want to see any more we came out. 

When we reached the entrance we saw our whole group sitting and waiting for us. They said that it is not a happy place to visit, and so they don’t go in. I also think that the smell here is not good.

..……  To be continued…….