Tuol Sleng

Although I have lived in Cambodia for over a year, I just visited Tuol Sleng for the first time this week.  Tuol Sleng is the museum on the site of the Khmer Rouge's Security Prison 21 (S-21), where well over 12,000 people (estimates vary) were detained, tortured, and killed during the regime's 4-year reign of terror from 1975-1979.

One creepy aspect to the visit was that Tuol Sleng is located only about 5 minutes from my house.  So, right in Phnom Penh, in a former high school, was where the Khmer Rouge set up one of their largest detention centers.

Interrogation room

A principal activity at S-21 was to interrogate prisoners and force them to admit to being CIA, KGB, anti-Khmer Rouge, or whatever other bogus accusations were brought against them.  Just inside the museum entrance, we stopped to read the rules of interrogation, which included:

• You must immediately answer my questions without taking time to reflect.
• You are strictly prohibited from contesting me.
• Do not make up pretexts to hide the fact that you are a traitor.
• If you don't follow these rules, you will be whipped or receive electric shocks.
• When getting lashes or electrification, you must not cry out at all.

Clearly they were sincere about getting accurate, truthful confessions.

The Khmer Rouge photographed prisoners upon arrival to S-21.  Several walls of the museum were filled with these somber portraits, row after row of eyes staring back at me, some in defeat, some in pain, yet many seemed defiant.

However, as I walked through this sobering locale, I found another emotion also tugging at me.  I had hoped and expected that visiting Tuol Sleng would be a powerful experience, yet I was disappointed.  The museum was not well laid-out - we walked down one hallway passing empty room after empty room until finally finding exhibits in the last room.  Many of the displays were fading and showing signs of age.  Some of them were repeated - after having looked closely at the prisoner portraits in one room, I noticed the same photos repeated in other rooms.  This location has a truly staggering story to tell, yet they've sadly missed an opportunity to tell it well.

The former main gate, crisscrossed with barbed wire