Extermination facility S21 Phnom Phen - Cambodia

Hi, Dear Steemian Friends

This picture was taken by Vietnamese soldier when they took over the camp S21 in 1979. It shows one of the dead body on its torture bed.

What's happen when human get to their darkest side when a country leader decides to take a revenge on his own people and pushing the insanity of killing to its worst ever. So, today I take you to another side of Cambodia, far from the beautiful Khmer traditional culture to bring you back 40 years ago during the reign of terror under the ruling years of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge army. I went to visit the Tuol Sleng S21 interrogation and execution facility on the outskirts of Phnom Phen.
Tuol Sleng was before the take over by Khmer Rouge a high school and it was turned into a top-secret prison, interrogation, and execution facility that has lasted from mid-1975 until the very beginning of 1979. During the 3 and a half years of operation, some 17 000 people have been the victim of the bloodiest ruling of the Khmer Rouge, only 6 people have made out alive of this facility. The 17 April 1975 the Khmer Rouge guerrilla took over the Cambodian capital Phnom Phen and most of the cities in the country, people receive the Khmer Rouge as liberators against the corrupted and US-backed up the government of General Lon Nol. The day after the take over the Khmer Rouge told the population of Phnom Phen (more than a million at that time) that they have to leave the town and other towns as well to be relocated at 2 or 3 kilometers away for 3 days after they will be allowed to come back. These three days have lasted three and a half year. The plan of the Khmer Rouge government directed by Pol Pot was to empty all the towns and bring all the population to the country where they will work as slave labor and live under the very difficult situation and harsh punishment if they don't do what they were told. The Khmer Rouge get mostly and only teenagers from the countryside as the guard to take care and punish the civilians, all these teenagers were not educated and easy to brainwash with the Khmer Rouge ideology. Those teenagers also carrying capital punishment without any control. In the S21 facility, it was the same teenagers were used to carry out torture and execution. Only wearing some glasses for the view was already punishable, also been a city person was also a reason. Most of the time the victims have nothing to do with politics but after being at S21 enduring all kind of torture, sleep and food privation, all the prisoners finished to say yes to everything and finally get killed. When I enter the first building, I wasn't knowing what it was used for but I get in the first room (an empty room) a kind of dizziness and cold in my body when the temperature was really high, after a few minutes in the building I discovered that people were killed here so the feeling was just an echo from the past. I will certainly make a longer post or a series of post to relate the history under the Khmer Rouge ruling.

Torture tools used in every room at the bat 1

Another dead body on the same bed.

The rules of the S21 camp.

One of the building of S21.

A few pictures of the cells where peoples were enchained in a very small cell.

Khmer Rouge children soldiers at the camp.

There is much more to say and to show but I reserved that for another post.

@ricko66