Tuol Sleng

Tuol Sleng can be translated in several ways, among them a poisonous hill or a hill of those who bear guilt.

It is the name of the high school which the Khmer Rouges chose for their most secret prison, code-named S-21. There, they imprisoned in concentration-camp like conditions and tortured those whom they considered as enemies of the "Angkar", the Party, and their families, from grand-parents to newborns.

Many died in the prison as a result of the diseases, lack of food and bad treatment; but most of the prisoners were executed outside of the prison, in a village named Choeung Ek, after they had confessed to their plotting against the "Angkar" and given names of other "conspirators".

Their rule was not to kill under torture ; when it nevertheless happened, they documented the fact with a report and a picture. After they had obtained from the prisoner the "confession" they wanted (often the most ridiculous and insignification thing or the most unbelievable like for a simple peasant to be a spy of the CIA) and names (of course ), they would drive the prisoners to Choeung Ek At least 12,500 men, women and children (reportedly up to 20,000) were imprisoned, only 7 survived.

I visited the site on Sunday. The instruments of torture, the cells, the pictures of the victims upon arrival, the pictures of the bodies which were found when the prison was liberated, the pictures of those who died under torture are there. After a couple hours there I could not stand it anymore, I was overwhelmed by what I was seeing. There is also a weird effect coming from the fact that very little is protected under glass boxes and that visitors can walk into almost every cell and room. There is no feeling that one looks through a glass or any distance: had I wanted, I could have touched the bed of the high-ranking prisoners and the iron bar which restrained their legs. I could have lied down on the floor of an individual cell or a mass cell. With little maintenance, everything is still there, it has been only 27 years since the prison was liberated...

Rithy Panh's movie Bophana was screened. The film tells the story of Bophana, a young and beautiful woman who's life was a tragedy from the beginning to the end. She symbolizes the suffering of the Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge regime. She is one of the victims of S-21.