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Phnom
Penh
Attractions
Tuol
Sleng Museum
The
Museum of Genocide is located in the former
Tuol Svay Prey gymnasium at the 103rd Street, close
to the corner of 350th Street. After April 17, 1975,
when the Khmer Rouge took the capital, the school
buildings served as Security Jail 21 where thousands
of people were systematically tortured. Many died during
the torture and more than 20,000 people were brought
from the jail to the Choeung Ek execution
area, where they were murdered and thrown into mass
graves. Only seven of the prisoners survived: sculptors
who had to produce busts of Pol Pot.
The
museum was set up in 1979, soon after the invasion of
the Vietnamese. Walls were decorated with numerous photographs
of murdered prisoners as Pol Pot's torturers had, with
the same small-minded pedantry met in Hitler's KZ personnel,
taken pictures of all the victims.
Also
displayed are instruments of torture, often surprising
in their primitivity. Obviously high-tech is not needed
to inflict inexpressible suffering and pain on other
people.
The
museum is open daily 7 to 11 am and 2 to 4:30 pm, except
on Mondays. Entrance fee is one US Dollar.
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