Killing Fields Phnom Penh

The Khmer Rouge Photographed Every Single Prisoner at S-21 and That Is What Makes It So Difficult

Between 1975 and 1979 the Khmer Rouge killed between 1.5 and 2 million people – roughly a quarter of Cambodia’s population. The exact figure remains debated; the scale is not. The mechanisms were systematic: forced evacuation of cities, agricultural labour camps, execution of perceived class enemies, intellectuals, anyone wearing glasses or with soft hands. The Tuol Sleng prison (S-21) in Phnom Penh and the Choeung Ek killing site outside the city are the two most accessible places to understand concretely what happened.

Whether to visit sites of mass atrocity is a genuine question. The answer here is yes, for the same reason it is yes at Auschwitz and the Rwandan genocide memorials: these physical places demand a kind of attention that reading about events in the abstract does not.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21)

Tuol Sleng is a former secondary school in Chamkar Mon district, converted in 1975 into a prison and interrogation facility. Between 14,000 and 17,000 people were imprisoned here. Twelve to fourteen are confirmed to have survived.

The Khmer Rouge documented their prisoners meticulously. Rooms of photographs face you as you enter: men, women, children, some looking directly into the camera. The classrooms where prisoners were held in wooden cells barely large enough to turn around in are intact. The buildings where interrogations took place are open; the iron bar restraints are still on the beds.

Admission is USD 3. Audio guides with survivor testimony are available for an additional fee and are worth getting. Two survivors, Bou Meng and Chum Mey, have for years come to the museum to speak with visitors. Allow two to three hours minimum.

Choeung Ek

Choeung Ek is 15 kilometres south of Phnom Penh, accessible by tuk-tuk (around USD 10 to 15 round trip). It was an orchard before 1975. The Khmer Rouge used it as an execution site, trucking prisoners from S-21 in batches.

The 43-metre memorial stupa at the centre contains 5,000 skulls arranged and visible through glass panels. The mass grave pits are visible as depressions throughout the site. Bone and cloth fragments continue to surface after heavy rain. The audio guide, included in the USD 6 admission, uses recorded testimony from survivors and perpetrators near specific locations. One section plays recordings near a particular tree; the content of what happened there is disclosed through headphones. It is considered by many visitors to be one of the most effectively designed memorial audio guides anywhere in the world. Allow 90 minutes for the full route.

Visiting Both Sites Together

Most visitors combine Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek in a single day. Some find Tuol Sleng more difficult because individual faces are unavoidable; others find Choeung Ek harder because the scale becomes physically present in the ground depressions. Having lunch between the two is appropriate and necessary.

Phnom Penh More Broadly

The Royal Palace on the riverfront near Sisowath Quay is open to visitors (USD 10) and includes the Silver Pagoda with a life-size diamond-set Buddha image. The National Museum holds the world’s most important collection of Khmer sculpture from the Angkor period. The Friends restaurant on Street 13 is a social enterprise that trains formerly street-connected youth in hospitality; the food is good and the organisation worthwhile. Getting around by tuk-tuk or Passapp/Grab app.