S21 was originally a high school in central Phenom Penh. In May 1976 the Khmer Rouge renamed it Tuol Sleng, or “suppliers of guilt”, and it became their premiere security institution specifically designed for the interrogation and extermination of anti-KR “elements.”

When a person was brought to S-21 they were tortured until they divulged the names 15 other traitors. If they could not name 15 others, suspected names were provided for their confession. They were then executed for sympathizing with anti-KR persons and the whole cycle started again with a new victim. The odd thing is when the Khmer Rouge came into power most Cambodians actually supported them as a supposedly stable and corruption-free alternative to the past governments.

There were 14 victims found when S21 was liberated. Some of these pictures are how they were found. It was determined that they were officers and guards of the camp. The clusters of shots are from the few inmate/victim records that hadn't been destroyed. The painting on the bottom row is a depiction of how some babies were killed – it was painted by a former inmate that survived.

Doctors, writers, teachers, and monks were executed as were those who spoke other languages and wore glasses. And since people with soft hands were also considered counter revolutionary bourgeois intellectuals, they were put to death as well.

You see very few old men in Cambodia, most were murdered or starved to death. It’s frightening to think that any local Cambodian you see that’s over 40 was either a Khmer Rouge victim or perpetrator – or both. Many were forced into participating in the Pol Pot’s “social experiment.”

In 1975 the population of Cambodia was 6 million. In 1979 it was 4 million. 2 million were either starved to death or executed. There were very few with the foresight to actually flee the country.

Choeung Ek, the Killing Fields Museum, was a originally a Chinese cemetery so it was not strange for the very superstitious Cambodian people to keep their distance from the grounds.

The Khmer Rouge didn't want to waste bullets or make too much noise so they would slam the victim across the back of the neck with a shovel, spade, or some other farming impliment. Sometimes they would slit peoples' throats with a razor sharp palm frond. Some were intentionally buried alive with their hands bound behind their backs. Some were suffocated by plastic bags over their heads. Loud music was blasted through a megaphone to muffle the cries during the executions.

Prison guards would swing the children by their feet slamming their heads against what became known as the “killing tree.”

Every 6 months the Choeung Ek officers and workers were rotated “out” which meant they were beheaded to insure their silence.

While we walked through the fields, what we initially thought were white pebbles embedded in the path were later explained to be human bone fragments. Natural erosion was starting to reveal pieces of clothing too.

In the summer of 2007 a new killing field was found in the Northern District. A farmer’s plow turned up a gold earring. He then started digging only to uncover the horror of several decomposed bodies. Finding new killing fields is not uncommon in the North.

The KR did not allow any forms of personal or mass communication. Books were burned. Magazine and newspaper publishers were considered counter revolutionary and bombed. No TV. No film. No telephone. Schools closed. Even wrist watches were considered anti-governmental tools of capitalist propaganda. Families were divided and sent to different farming communities every 2-3 months making any form of camaraderie virtually impossible.

The repercussions of the Khmer Rouge are still strong. For fear of the recent past, even into the late 80's, children were afraid to get a higher education. Many of the intellectuals which would be needed to form a new government had been erradicated by the KR and the current government, the oxymoronically named “Cambodian People’s Party” is widely recognized as one of the most corrupt governments in the world. Hun Sen, the current Prime Minister, is as bent as they come. I won’t get into it, but just take my word; he will have some serious karma issues to deal with. At the time of this writing the director of S-21, Kaing Guek Eav (nicknamed Duch), is on trial in Cambodia for crimes against humaniity. He was quoted as complaining to the judge that he'd suffered human rights violations because he had been placed in detention. Evidently the entire courtroom exploded in unsympathetic laughter.