Mesut Baran's Blog

Mesut Baran's Travel Notes

Cambodia - The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

I went to southeastern Asia countries Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos for my business project in 2013. Cambodia was the third stop of my trip to southeastern Asia. When I went to Phnom Penh the capital city of Cambodia, I visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which witnessed one of the most brutal massacres in human history.

Photos of victims

The meaning of "Tuol Sleng" is a poisonous hill. Almost all of the people who came to the genocide center were brutally murdered. On the walls of the prison, there are a lot of photos of victims’ people who were murdered in prison.

torture methods applied in the genocide

There are colorful paintings on the wall of the museum and many torture tools describing the methods of torture by Pol Pot's soldiers. When I asked my guide why they exhibited this shame table, he said to me "all of this is to warn future generations dictator and we want to show what those with absolute power can do."

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I talked to the last two Survivors

Only seven people had survived the genocide in this place, and I had the opportunity to meet the last two survivors who were still alive

Chum Mey is one of the surviving victims.

Chum Mey's wife and his newborn baby were brutally murdered by Pol Pot's soldiers. I asked him how he survived? He said that "because I was a good mechanic, the soldiers didn't kill me because I was repairing their machines".

Another survivor is Bou Meng, a former artist

Bou Meng was tortured for months. The soldiers allowed Bou Meng to live on the condition that he would paint Pol Pot's portraits and propaganda images. He said that "one of those pictures was the moment my wife was killed by the soldiers."

One day, if you want to go to Cambodia, you should visit Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and talk to the last survivors. 

This innocent woman was killed, perhaps a few minutes after being photographed. They had used the iron nails in the mechanism to murder the victims. The nail behind of her head was quickly stuck to her skull and the victim died in this way.

The photo I was most impressed with was the photo capturing the last moment of the woman who is sitting in the killing chair with the baby in her arms. How can a human kill a defenseless woman and her baby what is the power that makes people brutal?

I hope that there will be no more genocides in the world and people will learn to live together in peace.