The next morning, we were still in Phnom Penh. Everyone got loaded into a coach and taken to a torture centre. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was previously known as Security Prison 21 (S-21) when it was used by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 until its fall in 1979. An estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng. It was one of 200 torture and execution centres established by the Khmer Rouge and their secret police.
Before being a torture centre, the buildings were the Tuol Svay Prey High School. Construction began in 1975 to adapt the school. The buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire, the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture chambers. All windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent escapes and suicides.
At any one time, the prison held between 1,000 and 1,500 prisoners. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed. Most prisoners at S-21 were held there for two to three months. The torture system was designed to make prisoners confess to whatever crimes they were charged with. Prisoners were routinely beaten and tortured with electric shocks, searing hot metal instruments and hanging. Some prisoners were cut with knives or suffocated with plastic bags. Other methods for generating confessions included pulling out fingernails while pouring alcohol on the wounds, holding prisoners’ heads under water, and the use of waterboarding. There is unmistakable evidence that prisoners were sliced open and had organs removed with no anaesthetic.
Out of an estimated 20,000 people imprisoned at Tuol Sleng, there were only twelve known survivors: seven adults and five children. Today just one, Chum Mey, still lives. We were privileged to meet him. Formerly a motor mechanic, his life was only spared because of his ability to repair sewing machines. He was sat outside one of the buildings quietly talking to a few people and signing copies of his book.
For the first year of S-21’s existence, corpses were buried near the prison. However, by the end of 1976, cadres ran out of burial spaces. Execution centres, the killing fields, were set up outside of Phnom Penh. Here a gang of teenagers killed the prisoners. Typically, because of the scarcity and cost of ammunition, they were battered to death with iron bars, pickaxes, machetes and other makeshift weapons. After the prisoners were executed, the soldiers who had accompanied them from S-21 buried them in mass graves that each held up to 100 bodies.
We were taken to Choeung Ek, a site in Dangkao on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. A former orchard, this is one the 300 killing fields that have been discovered in Cambodia. 9,000 bodies have been exhumed from this site alone. At first glance, the site appears to be some uneven grassland with a few trees and a monument.
On closer inspection, there are some signs and walkways to guide you around the depressions that are the remains of mass burial sites. When executing the children of parents accused of crimes, the Khmer Rouge used a chankiri tree to smash their heads against whilst holding them by their legs. The tree is called the ‘Killing Tree’ and is adorned by hundreds of colourful bracelets. Women were also sometimes subject to rape before being killed. Over 300 people were executed each day some days.
In 1989, a Buddhist stupa was constructed as a memorial to the site. The Choeung Ek stupa contains a tall rectangular glass display containing over 5,000 skulls of people murdered at Choeung Ek. In Khmer Buddhism, death by violent acts are unfavourably viewed as tradition states that the spirit of the dead will continue to linger around the site of their death, preventing reincarnation. As such, many Cambodians refuse to visit the stupa. The stupa contains the remains of crania, mandibles, long bones, and other smaller bones who were initially housed in a wooden memorial.
In 2025, the Choeung Ek site and S-21 were designated as a World Heritage Sites by UNESCO as part of the Cambodian Memorial Sites.
That evening, I think it is fair to say, that everyone was shaken and disturbed by what we had seen. Certainly, my head was awash with questions, mostly beginning with “why”. The depths of depravity that organised groups of people can reach is astounding. History repeats itself through multiple genocides and acts of enormous brutality and cruelty. Ordinary people get draw into performing acts of such wickedness that can only be described as evil. Wikipedia lists over 150 genocides since the 12th century. Of which four are ongoing. Entire nations and ethnic groups are being systematically hunted down and eradicated. Now. Right now, as you read this.
Fortunately, there were dancing girls on hand to cheer us up. A local orphanage that is sponsored by the river cruise boat company, brought a dance troupe on board in the evening. Three immaculately dressed up girls began with the Apsara dance. This is Cambodia’s iconic classical royal dance, inspired by 9th-century celestial nymph stone carvings at Angkor Wat. It features slow, flowing hand gestures (mudras), arched postures, and gold-threaded traditional attire sewn directly onto the performers. Absolutely entrancing to watch.
The band, consisted of drums, cymbals, vocals and a type of xylophone known as a Roneat Aek. They all sat in one corner while the dancers performed directly in front of us on deck. Some male dancers arrived and then, a little later, some younger performers, dressed as monkeys, joined in. The principal and dance instructor of the orphanage gave us a little talk about their work. Everyone was quite happy to chip in a small donation.
Finally, our small group was invited to join in the dancing. Obviously, the invitation did not include me and anyhow I was needed to take photographs. The evening concluded with another excellent dinner and then, at 2am, we cast off, destined for the border with Vietnam.
