Yesterday was a pretty somber day for me. I visited the S-21 "processing" camp and the killings fields near Phnom Penh. The attrocities that these people faced under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge was astonishing! Over 2 million people died during the regime that only lasted from 1975-1979.

The first thing we visited was S-21. An old school building that was converted into a "processing" camp during the Khmer Rouge years. By processing camp I mean a camp to interigate, torture and eventually kill it's inhabitants. This camp alone processed over 17,000 people! Out of those only 7 survived!! The camp is now a Genocide museum which was probably as hard to visit as a Nazi concentration camp. There are only 3 main buildings. The first consisted of bare rooms with only a wire frame bed and a metal box to deficate into. The prisoners were shackled to the bed and were not allowed to talk, move or even relieve themselves unless they asked permission from the guards. If they did not obey they were tortured with one of many grousome techniques including whippings with electric wires, pulling fingure nails out of their hands, being hung upside down until they pass out and then dunking their heads in disgusting fertilizer vats until they regained consiousness.
Here is one of the main buildings.

Here is one rooms on the first floor.

Some of the buildings had brick cells that were just big enough to hold one person laying down. While some others were packed into rooms like slaves in a slave ship, all shackled together by their feet.

The Kmer Rouge were meticulous about keeping records and photos of almost every single person they killed and tourtured. The museum now has rooms full of hundreds of photos of men, women and even children that were killed.
Here is a picture of a couple of them. Yes that is a child with his hands tied behind his back.

One of the 7 survivors was a painter and when he was released painted a lot of terribly disturbing pictures of the things he and other prisoners witnessed while held there. Some of them are on display in the museum. These are a little disturbing so be warned!
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After being tortured and forced to write false confessions (sometimes up to 1000 confessions) they were all eventually killed. Tied and shackled they were packed into trucks and shipped off the the killings fields just a couple miles outside the city. There, mass graves waited and in order to save bullets almost all prisoners were either beaten in the head with a metal pipe, stabbed, had thier throats slit or hit in the head with a shovel.
Now there are some pits littered with torn clothing and a fairly boring monument stacked high with skulls.

All in all this was a sad but interesting experience that I will never forget about. It amazes me how these people can be so friendly and carefree after all they have been through.