S-21 and the Killing Fields, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
By Ben Frodsham
26 Jul 2010
Those most responsible for the atrocities perpetrated under the Khmer Rouge regime are finally being tried.
Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, the former director of the infamous Khmer Rouge detention center S-21 was convicted today. This was the former school, turned prison, which he governed and instructed the daily torture and excution of approximately 20,000 men, women and children.
Only 12 people came out of the prison alive, 3 of which are still alive today. One of the survivors spends his days showing visitors around S-21, showing people the very cell in which he was kept prisoner.
If prisoners came out of S21 alive they were taken to the Killing Fields on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. A large memorial with the bones of those who were killed dominates an area still largely untouched since those atrocities occured over 30 years ago.
2 responses
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Roxana Brivent-Barnes said (13 Jul 2011):
Sad, I wish those who killed would be executed too, in the same style. No no, that makes me a sad and extremist person, but to be left alive in between those skeletons, a view of everyday, and just crams as food, a reminder of how they treated those poor people!
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Bailey Cooper said (8 May 2012):
This is the stuff of photojournalism and certainly worthy of the recognition it deserves. Thank you for the telling.
