2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Tuol Sleng I

 During the Khmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, it is estimated that anywhere between 1.5 and 2 million Cambodians died (of a population at the time of 7.8 million). It is also estimated that 33.5% of Cambodian men and 15.7% Cambodian women of the total population did not see the end of the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror.

After achieving power, the Khmer Rouge transferred city populations to the country and camps, where they were required to write an autobiography of their lives and their fate was determined.  Many were destined for "Re-education Camps", which generally meant death camps. The Santebal (Secret Police) operated up to 196 of the camps during that four year period; one of the worst (and their headquarters) was Tuol Sleng, located in Phnom Penh.

Tuol Sleng (known in the day as "S-21", or "The Hill of Poisonous Trees") was a converted high school.  There are a total of five buildings; these buildings were surrounded by electrified barbed wire and the classrooms converted into prison cells and torture chambers.

It is estimated that 20,000 people passed through the gates of Tuol Sleng during its operational history.  Prisoners were taken here, tortured and made to confess to crimes and name the names of their "associates" (who were of course then taken into custody), and then eventually died or were killed.  The prison ran out of space in 1976 to bury bodies and so executions and burials were transferred to another facility outside of Phnom Penh.

At the start, the prisoners were largely government officials and military members from the preceding regime.  However, as time went on, members of Khmer Rouge began to turn on each other and they, in turn, became the majority of the captives.

Approximately 1,000 to 1,500 prisoners were onsite at any on time. The average "stay" was 2 to 3 months.

(A sign above an entrance indicating "silence".  Prisoners were forbidden to talk to each other)

Of the estimated 20,000 prisoners that passed through Tuol Sleng, there are only 12 known survivors, seven adults and five children.  It has been more recent assessed that up to 179 individuals were released during the prison's operation, but it is believed many or most of them were rearrested or did not survive the fall of Phnom Penh in 1979.