S21 (Security Prison 21)

There were many such prisons as S21 which is now a memorial and museum. S21 was a boys high school turned maximum security prison, torture and interrogation center. While Cambodians want all but to forget their recent, catastrophic past, it is important (in my opinion) to be able to see how ruthless and selfish this group of people, known as the Khmer Rouge, were.

If you know nothing about the Khmer Rouge then you should know this: they were a "Communist" group with only one agenda - the cleansing of Cambodia to serve their ideals. Anyone who proved a threat to their cause (ie: intellectuals and anyone who wore glasses, politicians, journalists, doctors, artists, musicians, monks, priests, etc) was executed and everyone else was forced into slavery - as farmers, agriculturalists or militia. The Khmer Rouge didn't want anyone to think for themselves or contradict their ideas for what would make a "fair" society.

Current estimates of the number of deaths hover around 3 million (the population estimates just before the Khmer Rouge ruled was about 7 million). I met several Cambodians who had family members killed and the talk of it as if it was just a fact of life. On my plane ride back to Korea, I met a man and his wife who fled to Thailand (which is what many lucky Cambodians tried to do, not always succeeding).

Here are some photos from S21.